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YALE
DIVINITY SCHOOL
LIBRARY

Gift of
Estate of
Professor Geqrge Dahl

MESSIANIC PROPHECY.

MESSIANIC PROPHECY:
Its ©right, historical ©rofotf), anH delation to
|iefo ^Testament fulfilment.

By De. EDWAED EIEHM,
LATE PROFB9SOR OF THEOLOGY 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.

rTIHE studies which form the contents of this book
were published originally in three parts in Theo-
logische Studien und Kritiken1 (1865 and 1869). In
compliance with frequent requests I allowed them
%o 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 Thied Paets will
be found substantially unaltered. More important
alterations, however, both as to form and matter,
were found necessary in the First Paet, 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
1 [Theological Essays and Reviews — a Magazine. — Tr.]

vi Preface to the Second Edition.
the little book in its partly altered form help to
further the design of its original conception "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 Riehm.
Halle, 22nd November 1884.

TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE.

T TRUST 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 I
can well here express. I am glad that he thinks
favourably of the translation, and, while pleading
guilty to the charge of using philosophical terms (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 Riehm'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 Riehm, 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 Riehm'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 characters — 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
of ch (instead of h) for n, the system of transliteration
adopted for the Hebrew words is that generally
employed. Except in the name Jehovah (YahVeh),
no equivalent has been used for the silent simple
sh'va. Eor the composite shevas I have used the
corresponding vowels with the short mark (").
The fghdl is expressed either by e or by 4. In
the Greek words the short vowels are not marked.
The numbers used in citing Scripture texts have,
where 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 book,
and that it is placed before (not, as with Riehm,
after) 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. Riehm's style is on the whole terse and clear ;
but I have not hesitated in some instances to break

Translator's 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 speak. 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 written with small initials,
except where the expression seems to be used in its
modern geographical sense. The word Erkenntniss —
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 mental conception, and
that the practice of English philosophical writers
may now be said to have sanctioned its use in that

x Translator's 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
garding the Servant do not altogether coincide with
those here advocated.
East. Wbmyss, Februa.ry 1891.

INTRODUCTION
BY PROFESSOR A. B. DAVIDSON, D.D.

rjlHE translator and publishers have done a lasting
-*- service to students of the Old Testament by
bringing out this new edition of Riehm'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 Riehm 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. Riehm

xii Introduction.
holds strongly that the progress of Revelation 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 the influence upon him of the
circumstances around him. The theory of Vision
has 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 their 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 perspective, and
appear to think that they have explained it, whereas
they have only called by another name the thing
requiring explanation. Riehm 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
flesh. 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 Riehm 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.
Riehm 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 perfect
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 the revelation was pro
gressive, and his endeavour is to throw 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 may 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
— when, 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 Riehm 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 Riehm touches only in
directly, perhaps, 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 Restoration, 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 rdle 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 ?
Nothiug less than the manifestation of Jehovah Him
self in all His saving attributes (Isa. ix., xi.). This
point is perhaps hardly elaborated in Riehm with
sufficient fulness.
Finally, in the last section of his work, devoted to
the question of Fulfilment, and distinguished by
candour and thoughtfulness, Riehm 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 be 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-
b

xviii Introduction.
cance ; for, in the first place, it brings home to us
better than anything else the reality of the rehgion
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
FIRST PART.
The Origin of Messianic Prophecy,  14
1. (a) Its Origin in Revelation,  14
(6) The Mode of Revealed Communication to the Prophets, 19
(c) The Organico-Genetic Connection of Prophecy with
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.
The Historical Chap.acter of Messianic Prophecy — Its
Adaptation to the Times,  124
The Fact and the Reasons of its Manifold Form, . . 125
1. Its Times-Colouring, .... . . 133
(a) Resulting from its Destination, .... 133
(6) And its Origin, in particular, the Limits of the Pro
phetic Prospect  142
(c) Proof-References, ... ... 153
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 hetween the course of the History of
the Kingdom of God and the Development of
Messianic Prophecy,  203

xx Contents.

THIRD PART.
The Relation of Messianic Prophecy to New Testament
Fulfilment 
1. Its Times-borrowed Features, 
2. Its specifically Old Testament Features, .
3. The Old Testament Envisaging Forms still adhering to all
Messianic Prophecies, in particular, .
(a) Jerusalem, the City of .God, ....
(6) Israel's Central Position in the Kingdom of God,
4. 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 God, 
(6) In relation to the Mediation of Salvation, in particular
the Person of the Messias,
(c) In relation to the Messiamc 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

217219
228234
235 238
271 272
278
283

ADDITIONS BY TRANSLATOR.
Appendices.
A. Notes  325
B. 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
£>. Recent Literature on Messianic Prophecy, or on the growth
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 Prophecy.
His sufferings and death, His resurrection and glorifica
tion, were preannounced in the 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,
the work of Christ — in the salvation He brought, in
the Kingdom He 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 the 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.1
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
1 Op. in regard to the Johannine Christology my remarks in
Studien u. Kritiken, 1864, pp. 552 ff., and A. H. Franke, Das Alte
Testament bei Johannes, 1885, pp. 166 ff.

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 inward 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 LORD 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. Rather
shall all Jerusalem be called the "Throne of the
LORD." 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.
the shade (Jer. 16. 14 £, 23. 7 f., Isa. 43. 16 ff.).—
Who can deny that 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 which 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
dogmatising 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

Introduction. 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
(Rom. 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
prophecy, and who do not trouble themselves to ascer
tain the sense which the prophets attached to their
own utterances, and in which they wished them to be
understood by their contemporaries.1 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 prophecy in the light that falls 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 us, 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-
1 Cp. Hengstenberg, Christologie, 2nd ed. iii. 2, p. 204: "The two
questions 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 us of great importance." In Heng
stenberg's ease this disregard of history results from his general view
of prophecy. If the prophet's only business is to describe the picture
which God has shown him in a state of ecstasy, and if the prophecy is
contained only in this picture which — even though the prophet's own
spirit was allowed to participate in its production — is yet substantially
only the work of the Spirit of God, it cannot, of course, matter much
whether and in what degree the prophet himself 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 purport of individual utterances considered as
members of the entire developing body 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 be 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 Prophecy.
plan 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 interpret prophecy more or less in
veference to fulfilment, 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
the prophets themselves understood their utterances,
and intended them to be understood by their contem
poraries, — — in other words, the historical sense pf

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.1
! It is a pleasing sign of an incipient mutual understanding between
opposite tendencies of thought in the Old Testament field, that the
correctness of the above propositions has been substantially acknow
ledged by a theologian of the school of Hengstenberg — viz. Dr. KIJper,
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
goal. Such a procedure serves rather the interest of his peculiar view
of prophecy as something objectively given by the Spirit of God — and
therefore to be distinguished as much as possible from the subjective
consciousness of the prophet — than that of clear scientific knowledge.
A clear and precise meaning can be attached to the expression contents
only when it is made "wholly synonymous " with the historical sense.
Kiiper is, of course, right in saying that the prophets are conscious of
announcing secrets which reach beyond the limits of their own com
prehension (although the passages cited by him, Jer. 33. 3, Dan. 9. 22,
Zech. 4, Hah. 2. 1 ff., imply only that they did not know and under
stand before revelation what was given them by revelation). Just as
frequently a pregnant poetic utterance may contain, besides what the
poet himself was fully conscious of expressing, possibilities of meaning
which he has grasped only in the vagueness of feeling, so even more
frequently the oracle of a prophet encloses a treasure, one part of whose
worth he himself clearly knows, while of the other part he has only a
vague presentiment, whose content may nevertheless in time emerge
gradually into clear consciousness. This must be so especially in
visions, where reflection, working upon a mental representation firmly
retained by the memory, elaborates the inner connections and the

10 Messianic Prophecy.
In what sense the prophets themselves intended
their utterances to be understood by their contem
poraries must be ascertained by an exegesis that
significance of the individual features into reasoned clearness. Yet
the same is true of every idea of rich content ; after it has been grasped
as a whole, there comes the slow process of clearly apprehending one
by one all its individual moments. Now • To the contents of a
prophecy belong undoubtedly not only the sense, to which the prophet
has given, clearly conscious expression, but also that higher and deeper
meaning, which, so far as the prophet is concerned, lurks still in the
shadowy light of mere presentiment. This latter must, however, be
reckoned to the contents of the prophecy only in the indefiniteness,
characteristic of mere presentiment, in which it is present to the
prophet's mind, or in which, in proportion to their receptiveness, it
may be present to the minds of his contemporaries. Thus reckoned,
it belongs also to the historical sense.
The Object, however (in the absolute sense), of revelation and
prophecy — i.e. the Decree of Jehovah — is so great and high, that
it transcends even the presentiment of the prophet, and remains the
object of new and future revelations in the sense that the contents of
these latter are not a mere external addition to the earlier revelations,
but are organically developed from them (see below). But that
portion of this absolute object, which lies beyond the reach of even
the prophet's presentiment, cannot be reckoned as part of the contents
of his prophecy. And thus a distinction cannot be made between the
historical sense and the contents of a prophecy. In an explanatory sen
tence (p. 72 of his work, Die alttestamentliche Weissagung von der Vol-
lendung des Gottesreiches, Vienna 1882) von Orelli has acknowledged
the distinction we have demanded between the contents of a prophecy
and its goal of fulfilment in Christ through a process of historical
revelation : " We must take," he says, " our standing ground entirely
within the time of the origin of these (prophetic) utterances." In the
same place he allows to the historical fulfilment a " merely regulative
influence " in the treatment of prophecy. That he should see in our
above propositions "a dualistic partition'' of the contents of prophecy
is due entirely to misapprehension (cp. my criticism in Studien und
Kritiken, 1883, pp. 803 ff.). Even Fried. Ed. K6nig,— Der Offen-
barungsbegriff des Alten Testaments, 2 vols., Leipzig 1882, — in spite
of his rigidly supranaturalistic view of the revelations made to the
prophets, has acknowledged the necessity of the distinction we have
demanded. (Vol. 2, pp. 385, 389.)

Introduction. 1 1
is at once grammatical, critical, and psychological.
Unanimously as the necessity of such exegesis is as
a matter of principle acknowledged in our time by the
representatives of the most widely differing stand
points, a certain anxious timidity not unfrequently
prevents the theologian, who is a believer in revela
tion, from making a candid acknowledgment of its
results in particular instances. This is apt to be
specially the case in the treatment of those passages
which have passed current for a considerable time in
the Church as Messianic prophecies, but to which
the exegesis of to-day denies that character. But it
happens also in the discussion of the question whether
this or that really Messianic passage is or is not to be
referred directly to the person of the Messias ; and, in
general, whenever an attempt is made to fix precisely
the prophetic content of such passages, the same spirit
is often enough observable. Even though the differ
ence between Old and New Testament apprehension is
in principle allowed, a delicacy is felt in making the
admission in any particular case, that so little New
Testament assurance 1 should be contained in passages
which we have been accustomed to cite as principal
witnesses for the intimate connection between Old
Testament prophecy and New Testament fulfilment. —
But let us see to it that this timidity does not carry
with it a tendency to depreciate the germ-like begin-
1 [Here, as in other places, for the German Heilserkenntnis (apprehen
sion of salvation) — a sufficient but not strictly accurate equivalent.
— Tr.]

12 Messianic Prophecy.
nings of Divine revelation, and to assume the unbe
coming position of critics of the Divine educative
wisdom. It is our duty to get rid entirely of the fancy
that we do justice to Divine revelation and prophecy
in the Old Testament only when we find our New
Testament assurance expressed in them. The principal
reason of our timidity is that, in the desire to see the
connection between the Old and the New Testament, we
confine our view too narrowly to individual passages.
He who in a temple that is an acknowledged archi
tectural masterpiece does not survey the structure as
a whole, may easily look for more beauty and perfec
tion of form in the details than they by themselves
really possess. The spectator, however, who admires the
whole building, need have no scruple in acknowledging
the imperfections, in their isolated character, of details,
which make the temple great and splendid only by their
coordination and harmonious articulation. One who,
in like manner, has gained an insight into and a view
of the whole Old Testament economy, and has, as a
consequence, attained a full and clear conviction that
the Old Covenant, as a whole, has been planned with
a view to a future fulfilment in the New, and that
the whole trend of religious development in the Old
Testament is towards Christianity, will, in the exegesis
of all particular Messianic passages, without scruple
recognise only that measure of knowledge of God's
saving purpose which, when- examined according to
the rules of a strictly historical method of exegesis,
they are found really to contain.

Introduction. 1 3
It is not our intention in the present work to begin
by fixing exegetically the precise import of particular
prophecies. We presuppose the results of exegesis.
Our problem, as that of those who have gained these
results, is as follows : — We wish to understand the
essence and character of Messianic prophecy in the
Old Testament, viewed in its totality as a historical
phenomenon. We propose to do this by investigating
the relation which the contents of particular prophecies
bear to the prevailing religious standpoint of Israel, to
the course of development pursued by Old Testament
religion, to the historical events, conditions, and cir
cumstances of the times of utterance, and to the
subjective peculiarities of the prophets who uttered
them. We must examine likewise the mutual rela
tions of these prophecies to one another. It is only
when we have gained in this way a knowledge of the
historical character of Messianic prophecy that we can
by comparison of our results with New Testament
fulfilment obtain a satisfactory answer to our main
question. — In accordance with this plan our first
business is to present, and — so far as may appear
necessary in view of the labours of others — to justify,
the results of our investigation of the historical
character of Messianic prophecy.

FIRST PART.
THE ORIGIN OF MESSIANIC PROPHECY.
TO attain a knowledge of the essence and character
of an historical phenomenon, it is of first import
ance that we go back to the beginnings of its growth.
The first question, therefore, with which we . are con
cerned, relates to the origin of Messianic prophecy.
What is this origin ? How did Israel — how, in
particular, did the prophets arrive at the idea of a
Messias ? To be content simply to say, as a rigid
and soulless supernaturalism says : " By the revelation
of God," or: "By the enlightening efficacy of the Divine
Spirit," is, of course, to express a truth, but it is no
answer to our question. It is to express a truth: for, of
course, it is true of Messianic prophecy*, as of the pro
phetic word in general, that it originates in the revelation
of God, mediated by the effectual work of the Spirit.
We also are persuaded that an historical understanding
of Old Testament prophecy is impossible apart from a
recognition of the reality of the Divine revelations
imparted to the prophets.
Any person who regards the prophets simply as men
of remarkable wisdom and piety, who sought to impart
to the masses their peculiar religious, ethical, and
philosophical convictions, and to gain acceptance for
14

The Origin of Messianic Prophecy. 1 5
these in practical life, particularly in the sphere of
politics, who, in order to this, employed, among other
expedients, that of announcing hopes and fears, derived
partly from their faith in a righteous Providence and
partly from their patriotism and political sagacity, —
any one who, in maintaining such a view, deliberately
ignores the idea of an extraordinary operation, of the
Spirit of God upon the mind of the prophets, must be
content to forego an understanding of the inmost
essence of the entire historical phenomenon of Old (
Testament prophecy. For it is an undeniable fact —
a fact attested once and again on every page of the
prophetic writings — that the prophets themselves were
most clearly and certainly conscious of announcing,
not their own thoughts, but the thoughts- of. God
revealed to them, — not their own words, but the word
of God laid upon their hearts and put into their
mouths. It is precisely this point that they emphasise
when they distinguish themselves from false prophets.
They claim that they are sent by God, and have
received a definite commission to discover some secret
of His counsel ; while the false prophets appear with
out Divine commission, and speak, not what Jehovah
has spoken to them, rather only the vision of their
own heart (chazon libbam y'dhabberu lo' mippi Yaheveh)}
They prophesy the deceit of their own heart ; they
"use their tongues, and say: He saith" (Jer. 23. 31).
1 [For the benefit of the ordinary reader we print here, as else
where, the Hebrew, or, as the case may be, Greek words in Roman
letters.— Tit.]

16 Messianic Prophecy.
They are, in short — n'bhi'e millibbam (prophets
(speaking) from their own heart) — cp. Jer. 23. esp.
vv. 16, 18, 21, 22, 26, 28, 31, aud Ezek. 13. esp.
vv. 2, 3, 6, 7, 17. This distinction between the true
and the false prophet rests undoubtedly, further, on the
clear consciousness of the former, that as the faithful
servant of his God he keeps ever in view — in all that
he utters and prophesies — the one object of giving
effect to the will oit God in the State and among the
people, while the false prophets deliberately renounce
any such task, and pander selfishly to the likings and
passions of the people. As the principles and aims
observable in a prophet's ministry become to others
the standard of judgment as to whether or not he has
really been called to his office by Jehovah, and as His
servant been made the worthy trustee of real revela
tions ; so, as regards the prophet himself, his subjective
certainty of his Divine calling is conditioned by the
testimony of his conscience, that in his preaching and
prophesying he is not seeking his own ends.1 But
even this method of marking the difference belJween
false and true prophets is possible only when -the
latter are most clearly conscious that their prophetic
testimony as a whole does not proceed " from their
own heart," and, so far from being the product of
1 In his criticism of the above propositions Konig (in loc. cit. ii.
p. 229, note) has put his own construction upon them, as if the
meaning were that the prophet's certainty of having received Divine
revelations was grounded solely, or at least principally, upon the fact
of his good conscience. His inclination to deny to the latter all
significance in this relation is the result of his rigid supernaturalism.

The Origin of Messianic Prophecy. 1 7
their own reflection, wishes, hopes or fears, is in reality
something given them by God. Every reader of the
prophetic writings knows that not only does almost
every new clause commence with WayeJvi dhebhar
Yaheveh 'elai (and the word of the Lord came unto me)
Koh'amar Yah'veh (thus saith the Lord), or the like, if
it is not closed with a ne'im Yah'veh (oracle of the
Lord),but also that quite commonly the personal number
is changed, and the address is delivered directly in the
name of God. The prophets have, moreover, not only
the confident certainty that what they announce in the
name of God will assuredly come to pass, but the
prophetic word itself is in their view a power of God.
It is a word which, so to speak, accomplishes its contents
of itself, and that just as infallibly as the law of
nature, whose operation it may formally include, proves
itself no mere empty phrase, but a really present
effective force in the physical system (cp. for example
Jer. 1. 10, 23. 28 f., Is. 55. 10 f.). And the con
sciousness that they have received a definite commission
from Jehovah exercises upon the prophets themselves
a force so overmastering that all their own inner
resistance to it cannot be reckoned of account (cp.
Amos 3. 8 and esp. Jer. 20. 7-9). On the other
hand, just here lies the power which enables them to
face every danger with indomitable courage, and to
fulfil their commission even when all the forces of
king, princes, people, priests and a whole pack of false
prophets are arrayed against them (cp. Jer. 1. 17 ff.,
20. 10 ff.). Many other passages might be cited in

18 Messianic Prophecy.
proof of the clear and indestructible conviction of the
prophets that they announce only what God Himself
has communicated to them to be announced.1 Those
who desire to lay firm historical hold of the pheno
menon of Old Testament prophecy must do justice to
this element in the prophetic consciousness. This can
be done only by conceding to it objective validity —
surely no difficult concession ; for one has only to
think of such an event as the annihilation of Senna
cherib's host by the " sword not of a mighty man "
(Isa. 31. 8) to see how much there is in the coincidence
of events with prophecies, uttered too long before them
to be considered the • result of ordinary human fore
sight, to convince even the most gainsaying that the
vivid overmastering conviction of his own inspiration
1 Jer. 28 is, among other passages, very instructive. In ver. 6
Jeremiah distinguishes with great definiteness between the word Of
ill-omen he has to announce by commission of God and the false pro
phecy of Hananiah, which yet is in harmony with the patriotic wish
of his own heart. Clearly as he knows Hananiah to be a false prophet,
he is content in the first instance to refer the matter of the genuine
ness or falsity of his prophecy to the future decision of history, and
gives no immediate answer even to Hananiah's violent confirmation
of his false prophecy, but " goes his way " (ver. 11). Only after the
word of God has come to him afresh, does he oppose — with emphasis
superior even to Hananiah's — his own prophecy of evil to the latter's
deceptive promise of deliverance, tells him to his face that he is a
false prophet, and announces his death in the course of the year in
well-deserved punishment for his offence (Deut. 18. 20 ff.). Not less
instructive is 2 Sam. 7. 1 ff. , where Nathan at first regards David's
intention of building a temple as pleasing to God, and pronounces
accordingly, but is afterwards instructed by a special oracle in the
night to restrain him. Cp. Oehler, art. " Weissagung " in Herzog's
Realencyklopadie, xvii. pp. 627 ff. ; H. Scht/ltz, Alttestamentliche
Theologie, vol. i. p. 167, vol. ii. pp. 44 f. — in the 2nd edition,
pp. 220 ff. The claims which the prophets themselves make for the

T/ie Origin of Messianic Prophecy. 1 9
entertained by the prophet is not without historical
foundation.1 We therefore cordially admit the pro
position that the prophets received every oracle by
Divine revelation. But that this admission carries us
only a very little way towards an answer to our
question as to the origin of Messianic prophecy, becomes
obvious the moment we remark upon the way in which,
according to the prophets themselves, the Divine communi
cations were, as a rule, made to them. On this point,
however, we confine ourselves — in conformity with our
special aim in this treatise — to a rigidly relevant line
of remark, and are content to refer the reader to the
exhaustive discussions of Bertheau, and, in particular,
of Oehler.2 In agreement with these theologians
we must at once declare ourselves against the view
reality of their special communion with God in revelation have been
vindicated with the greatest success by Friedr. Ed. Konig in the
work already referred to (esp. in vol. ii. pp. 161 ff'.). His view of the
subject, however, suffers much from its literalism (see below).
1 Even Bern. Duhm, in his work, Die Theologie der Propheten
als Grundlage fur die innere Entwickelungsgeschichte der israelit-
ischen Religion (Bonn 1875), must make such an admission as that :
" for fully the third of a century Isaiah was witness of the most per
plexing combinations of the political sky, and on all events — except
those of quite subordinate interest — pronounced a judgment that was
never fallacious. Surely a great result ! " But when he adds : " The
simple means which produced this result — the source from which the
prophet's political wisdom flowed — was nothing more than the belief
tliat Jeliovah was directing the affairs of all nations into the channel
of His purpose for His own people, " the consideration, that many
have held this belief without being able to give an infallible judgment
on coming events, might have convinced him that his own explana
tion of the "great result '' is wholly insufficient.
2 Cp. Bertheau, "Die alttestamentliche "Weissagung von Israels
Reichsherrlichkeit in seinem Lande," ii., in the Jahrbb.fiir deutsche
Theologie, 1859, vol. iv. pp. 603 ff. Oehler, art. "Weissagung" in

20 Messianic Prophecy.
that finds the essential characteristic of prophetic
inspiration in the state of ecstasy, and regards the
vision as the usual medium of the revelation made
to the prophet. The principal advocate of this theory
is Hengstenberg. The view, however, which he gives
in the second edition of his Christology- — a view greatly
modified from that of the first edition 1 — is rather in
the direction of saying that, when the prophets received
a Divine revelation or spoke in the Spirit, they were
by no means in a condition of unconsciousness (this
as against Montanism 2). On the contrary, the words
of Steinbeck might be cited as an appropriate descrip
tion of their state :. -'.' The inspired man not only feels
more keenly, he thinks also more acutely and more
clearly." Still their condition at such times was " one
most distinctly marked off from what is normal and
ordinary." They were in a state of ecstasy. In other
words, the sum-total of their normal faculties — sensible
perception and desire, secular thought, and their in
tellectual consciousness as a whole — -was abnormally
repressed by a sudden overmastering operation of the
Spirit of God upon their spirit ; while, on the other
hand, their inner perceptions were aroused to such
extraordinary acuteness that they immediately saw or
heard what God designed to reveal to them. While
loc. cit. pp. 629 ff., and Theologie des Alten Testamentes, ii. § 205 AT.
Also Tholuck, Die Propheten und ihre Weissagungen, pp. 49 ff.
1 Cp. Hengstenberg, Christologie, iii. 2, pp. 158-217.
2 [The generic name for the ecstatic view of prophecy, so called from
Montanus of Phrygia, who flourished in the middle of the second century.
See Kurtz's Church History, § 37, also Lux Mundi, p. 343. — Tr.]

The Origin of Messianic Prophecy. 2 1
they were in this state, outward perception was entirely
suspended ; the intellectual consciousness was over
powered by the spiritual, the nous by the pneuma,
yet in such a way as that the ordinary thinking
powers, so far from ceasing to operate, were rather
stimulated to follow the flight of the loftier and
special faculty of intellectual intuition,1 always, however,
at the distance which became their condition as at
once essential inferiors and faithful servants of the
faculty of inner perception. An inspiration, thus -
constituted, involves the visionary character of all
prophetic apprehensions. In the state of ecstasy the
prophets see visions, and in their utterances they
describe only what they see in the Spirit. Hence
the rapid movement of prophetic discourse from one
object to another corresponds to the swift succession
of visions before the spiritual eye. — The proofs of this
view, in the presentation of which we have confined
ourselves almost entirely to Hengstenberg's own
words,2 are various. They have been sought, partly
in the familiar examples of the lowest degree of pro
phetic inspiration (Balaam, Saul, etc.), partly in
isolated instances of states of ecstasy which prophets
and apostles have experienced, partly in certain words
and phrases which have remained in use since the
earliest days of prophecy, when naturally the lowest
was also the prevalent form of inspiration. Emphasis
has been laid upon these last in spite of the fact that
1 See Appendix A, Note I.
2 Cp. in loc. cit. pp. 169, 173, 174, 176, 179, 181, 184.

22 Messianic Prophecy.
in view of the development of prophecy it is impos
sible to attach to them their literal etymological sense,
and that words originally descriptive of isolated and
extraordinary states of consciousness have as a matter
of fact come to be used to denote the ordinary mode
of revelation (mar'ah, ro'im, chozim, chazon and the
like). The chief defect of the view is, however, just
that it fails to distinguish with sufficient clearness
between the different degrees and kinds of prophetic
inspiration, and does not consequently do justice to
the facts. It has been well remarked that the
prophecies of Isa. chaps. 40—66, and in general most
of the prophecies in the books of .Isaiah, Jeremiah,
Ezekiel, Hosea, Micah, and others, ' neither admit of
being described as visions seen in ecstasy, nor yet
betray on the part of the prophets a spiritual state
" most distinctly marked off from what is normal and
ordinary." "These discourses (i.e. those in Isaiah,
etc.) do not attest any sudden' possession of the prophet
by some overmastering force, — showing itself in
movements and convulsions of the body, — they attest
rather a continuous Divine operation, a subjective
activity heightened through communion with God,
which admits of the freest use of human gifts, and the
most perfect command of the prophet's original powers
and capacities." 1 Even Hengstenberg allows that the
eschatological discourses df Christ, in particular those
in Matt, chaps. 24 and 25, are generically identical with
the Messianic utterances of the prophets. Common
1 Cp. Bertheau in loc. cit. pp. 607 and 610.

The Origin of Messianic Prophecy. 23
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
" by 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 abnormal conditions into which, according to
this theory, the sudden and overmastering operation of
the Divine Spirit must have thrown them ! x Over
1 The whole argument of Hengstenberg 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
plish his purpose by removing the psychological condition of the
prophets as far as possible from the sphere of ordinary experience.
But are signs and wonders requisite to guarantee the belief that the
word of God is in reality His word 1 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
are not in themselves a sufficient pledge of the supernatural origin or
an alleged revelation. Are there not visions which prove only a
morbid state of mind in the seer ? — Besides, Hengstenberg's argument
is not free from self-contradiction. In the first 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 ot
Old Testament prophecy into bare illustrations. In KDper'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 aBswer :
that extraordinary physical convulsions are not as a rule involved in
prophetic inspiration. On the other hand, he allows that, with
prophets like Isaiah and Jeremiah, besides the " extraordinary moods
and'states of inspired possession," there intervene calmer states "in
which prophecy exhibits rather the equable 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
1 ' special illumination intervened so often as it might be required by the
prophets in the fulfilment 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 states, and
to speak of an ecstatic foundation in all prophecy. It would appear
that Kiiper believes himself unable to dispense 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 himseli

The Origin of Messianic Prophecy. 2 5
subject of prophecy, — in view, in particular, of the pro
phetic writings themselves, — confidently lay down the
following thesis : The lower 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.1
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 lowest
kind of ecstasy the seer loses self-control : self-con
sciousness, and self-determination-1— 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 tho view of Hengstenberg,
cp. also K8nig in foe. cit. ii. pp. 6 ff., 53 ff., 83 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 sufficient
to secure my meaning against such 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 sensible perception (see below),
1 Cp. Duhm in loc. cit. p. 86.

26 Messianic Prophecy.
goes without saying that ecstasies of this 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 this-si&e of prophecy proper. Hence the Apostle
Paul (1 Cor. 14) expressly distinguishes between the
tongue-gifted, 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.1 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
1 It must be remembered, moreover, that speaking with tongues did
not by any means always involve an unconscious condition. Witness
the case, repeatedly* referred to by the apostle, in which the tongue-
gifted possessed a parallel 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 vanishing one.

The 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-
faculties 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.1 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 ancients2
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,3 were
frequently at the moment of revelation in an ecstasy
of this kind, especially in the cases in which God Him-
1 Morbid phenomena of this kind are what we call hallucinations.
" Cp. e.g. Cicero, de divinatione, i. 50 (113), 51 (117), 57 (129),
30 (63).
3 Cp. e.g. Acts 10. 9 ff., 2 Cor. 12. 1 ff.

28 Messianic Prophecy.
self in some sensible form was brought before the
spiritual eye, or the circumstances and fortunes of the
people of God were represented under certain external
symbols. True, many of the 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
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 prophetic 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 ; ne'um Yaheveh, i.e. secret confidential communi
cation from the Lord (literally, what is whispered — an
appropriate description of the hollow, deadened tones
of a voice from the world of mystery ; cp. the roots
naham and hamah), and the like. These are the most
common phrases, and they must 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
chdzon and chazuth, etc., words manifestly appro
priate directly only to visiojis, and applied only
incidentally to prophecy in general.
We see thus that the usual method of prophetic
revelation is to be understood as a hearing of the word
of God. This is expressly allowed even by Konig
(in loc. 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 bodily eye, which is specially equipped

30 Messianic Prophecy.
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
his hearing of the word of God, is a veritable hearing :
his bodily ears are mysteriously opened to hear the
Divine speech literally and articulately sounding towards
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
1 As regards the seeing, he states his view thus (ii. pp. 100 f.) i "My
assertion is : that only a veritable seeing of phenomena, which God
allows to meet their vision from beyond the limits of the 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 are
awake, and have their outer eyes open, who are 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," such expressions as the following show (ii. pp. 126 f.).
"Even in the case of the vision of the Macedonian in the Hdrama did
th nulctds (Acts 16. 9), unless it is to be considered a mere dream or
hallucination such as is common to men — one of the stock products of
the factory of the imagination — there must have been a crystallising
of ether-particles, forming to the outer eye of the waking Paul the
image of a Macedonian;" ii. p. 132, "In order to become visible,
heavenly things (according to ii. p. 79, ' God and the angels ') have
often assumed a certain abnormal condensation." This condensation,
he explains in the same passage, varies in degree. Sometimes the
heavenly form can be seen with actual " eyes of flesh," at other times
the eyes must be specially opened ; ii. p. 256, "God Himself, as well
as the spirits in His service, have for the purpose of self-manifestation
assumed such condensations (or concentrations) of their usual mode of
being (morphe), that they became visible- to the prophets ; " ep. further,
ii. p. 211. On the hearing, cp. such as the following: i. p. -82,
"From all this we see that the call of the prophet was external and
sensible, not exposed therefore, like mere human reflection, to the risk .
of illusion ;'' i. p. 87, "The question of importance is whether the
Divine word (Gen 12. 1) came really once upon a time sounding from
the other world into the ear of Abraham ;" ii. p. 359, "If, according
to all that we have said above, the subject-matter of a word-revelation

Tlie Origin of Messianic Prophecy. 3 1
outwardly audible, whether as a call from heaven or
from some earthly habitation (Ex. 19. 19, 20. 22,
Deut. 4. 12 f. and ver. 36, cp. Gen. 21. 17, 22. 15,
1 Sam. 3. 1 ff., 1 Kings 19. 12 ff), and what in the
Gospel history occurs only at isolated moments of crisis
(Matt. 3. 17, 17. 5, John 12. 28) — constituted, accord
ing to Konig, the normal mode* of revelation to the
prophets.1 The prophet on this view stood to God in
precisely the same relation as a pupil, who learns by
question and answer, or repetition by heart, stands
to his teacher; or as a servant, who mechanically
remembers some verbal commission, and after a longer
or shorter interval accurately conveys it to the
destined ear, stands to his master.2 Still Konig
does hot regard all that the prophet spoke or wrote
as the immediate word of God in the sense he
has defined, but only those sentences, which they
themselves expressly designate as sayings of God, which
they have heard. He distinguishes therefore between
the words of God that have come directly from Him
without any sort of psychological medium, and the

could have been presented to the prophet only by means of an actual
voice reaching his ear from a sphere normally transcendent and imper
ceptible, we must further assume that these communications were, in
form, articulate indications of the Divine will." Cp. also ii. pp. 210
and 155 ff.
1 In the later Jewish theology the voice descending from heaven
(cp. Dan. 4. 31) — the so-called bath kol — is notoriously reckoned a
kind of lesser equivalent for the revelations of prophecy and the Holy
Spirit. Cp. on this Ferd. Weber, System der altsynagogahn palds-
tinischen Theologie, Leipzig 1880, pp. 184, 187 ff.
2 Cp. Konig in loc. cit. ii. pp. 209, 219, 220.

32 Messianic Prophecy.
additions of the prophets from the store of their own
knowledge or of common revelation, and attempts in
particular instances of passages from the prophets to
separate the two elements from each other.1 He cannot,
however, conceal from himself the difficulties of such
an undertaking : not only is the passage in the prophetic
text from the Divine Speaker to the human prophet in
many cases almost entirely imperceptible, but the utter
ances that are directly and exclusively assigned to God
are, as regards their correspondence with the individu
ality and historical horizon and standpoint of the
prophet, entirely of a piece with the alleged " additions."
Konig endeavours to set aside this difficulty by adopt
ing from the Inspiration-dogma, of the elder Protestant
ism the idea of an accommodation on the part of the
revealing God to the individuality and " historical
horizon " of the prophet, and by making the freest
possible use of the idea of a pedagogic adaptation of the
Divine speech to the spiritual, and, in particular, the
ethico-religious standpoint of his time.2 With this is
connected,further,his admission, that the Divine message
did not necessarily come to the prophet in the exact
form of words and sentences in which he might deliver
1 Konig in loc. cit. ii. pp. 220, 270-278, 356-359 : While he recog-
nisesthe "additions" and "embellishments" of the prophetic writings,
as — if not "directly Divine," yet — "Divine human," he would have
the detailed statements of the historical books of the Old Testament —
among others, those concerning the prophets— examined according to
the tests applied to the prophets' own testimony, and with reference
to the question whether or not in the tradition human chaff has been
mixed with the genuine Divine .grain. See Appendix A, Note II.
2 Konig in toe. cit. ii. pp. 209, 218 f., 307, 312 f., 348, 356, 363 ff., 397.

The Origin of Messianic Prophecy. 33
it; but that, on the contrary, we must recognise the exer
cise on the part of the prophet of a relative freedom in
such merely formal respects.1 The futility of such a
make-shift will, we should suppose, be obvious to most.
It cannot serve to conceal the essential incongruity of
Konig's rigidly obscurantist view of the mode of
Divine revelation to the actual facts of the case as
presented in the prophetic writings. The hypothesis
of an accommodation of Divine revelation to the indi
viduality of the prophet and the mental capacity of
his hearers, is not inconsistent with the doctrine of the
Inspiration of Scripture by the Holy Spirit, and so long
as it was only, or mainly, a question of how to explain
observed differences of style in the prophetic writings,
and other matters relating only to the form of presenta
tion (i.e. up to the latter half of last century), one could
at least hope to find in it a sufficient guide through the
perplexities of our subject. But to require us to believe
in a literal Divine voice sounding in the ears of the
prophet is surely a romantic caricature.2 And if we
consider the far-reaching consequences of the praise-
' worthy candour with which Konig allows the stamp of
the prophet's individuality" and historical limitations to
adhere to the word of God as communicated to him,
and remember the free use it necessarily led him to
make of what is at best a precarious hypothesis, it
cannot surprise us that he himself should have been
staggered and confused by the intricacies of his own
reasoning. Of such a result we actually find some
' Konig in toe. cit. ii. pp. 361, 364. 2 See Appendix A, Note III.
0

34 Messianic Prophecy.
traces towards the end of his work (see below). His
own idea, of course, was that his hypothesis was neces
sary to justify the claims the prophets made for them
selves. Closer investigation, however, tends to the
discovery that no such necessity lies in the prophets'
own account of their inspiration, but only in Konig's
literalistic interpretation of their words, and that this,
again, is chiefly the consequence of the gross sen
sationalism involved in the idea that dominates his
argument. We mean the idea that only an act of
external perception can form the basis of a certainty as
to the objective reality of an event that shall exclude
every doubt and possibility of illusion, and that there
fore a " truly objective kind of Divine communication "
can be only one that is external and sensible — capable,
i.e., of being perceived through the bodily senses of sight
and hearing.1 We refrain from investigating more
1 Konig in loc. cit. i. p. 82, "From all this we see that the call of
the prophet was external and sensible, not exposed therefore, like mere
human reflection, to the risk of illusion ; " i. p. 100, "What then,
shall we say, must have happened in the spiritual experience of the
prophet to produce an indubitably " recognisable " " call of God " ? i.
p. 3, "If the prophets were conscious of some specially qualifying
cooperation of the Divine Spirit with theirs as the only Divine factor
of their prophetic knowledge, a, discrimination on their part between
their own subjectivity and the Divine thoughts would not have been
reliable, or even possible;" ii. p. 101, "Otherwise (i.e. apart from
bodily eyesight) they would have had no certainty that they were not
following after what they have not seen (Ezek. 13. 3), what had come
from their own heart, what they had themselves imagined ; " ii. p.
125, "No other 'inner sense' is discoverable, which should prove
itself different from thinking, from phantasy. If thinking and phantasy
had been employed by the prophets as the means of perception, they
could not have been convinced of the objective reality of what they
saw;" ii. p. 160, "It is my fixed conviction that the moment we

The Origin of Messianic Prophecy. 3 5
closely the Sensationalistic x view of knowledge involved
in such an opinion, the more so, that Konig does not
seek to found his view upon abstract principles. We
simply set over against it the contrary axiom express
ing our own conviction : that God who is spirit is able
to reveal and communicate Himself to the human spirit
immediately — without, i.e., the mediation of external
sense-perception, and that this revelation is of a " truly
objective kind" carrying with it a certainty that excludes
all doubt. On the other hand, we cannot escape the
task of examining more minutely the personal testi
mony of the prophets. How are we to conceive their
hearing of the word of God ? What are we to say of
the supports which Konig found in this and other like
phrases for his own view ?
Of first importance here is the point which we have
already emphasised (pp. 16 f.), and which is treated at
length by Konig as the third principal utterance of the
prophets regarding their own inspiration (ii. pp. 161-
366) — we mean the clear and certain consciousness
of genuine prophets that the Divine word which they
announce does not originate millibbam (from their own
heart) like the alleged oracles of the false prophets,
but has been really communicated to them by God.
reject the transcendental standpoint and the truly objective method
of Divine revelation, the endeavour to uphold the Divine authorship
(hence also the Divine subject-matter) of the prophetic deliverances
becomes vain;" ii. p. 181, "An 'inner act of consciousness ' is too
precarious a foundation for such an edifice as the prophetic certainty. "
1 [The closest possible equivalent for the German sensualistisch,
though the latter is perhaps hardly used in the same technical
sense. — Tr.]

36 Messianic Propltecy.
So far we can heartily agree with Konig in saying that;
according to the testimony of the prophets them
selves, they received their communications " from
without inwards : " x they do not proceed from within
the prophet himself, but from God, whom the prophet
knows as a Person, distinct from, and not dwelling
in himself — standing in " truly objective reality "
over against his own ego, yet actually conversing
with him. We must beware, however, of resting
on this consciousness of the prophets a heavier weight
of inference than it can bear. Konig makes this
mistake when he infers from it a denial on the
part of the prophets " that their prophetic cognitions
were worked into form in the human soul, or took
shape under the ordinary processes of judgment and
inference, or the influence of human feelings and
motives" (in loc. cit. ii. p. 174). For the expression
millibbdm, as used of the false prophets, and the con
sciousness of the genuine prophets that their word of
prophecy does not originate millibbam, relate only —
be it said, in the first place — to the source of the
oracle, not to the mode of its communication to the
prophet. In reference to the latter point, it leaves just
as much room for mediation to the transaction that
belongs to the inner sphere and domain of the spirit
as to that which belongs to the outer world of sense.
It does not make the slightest difference that in the
1 Of course, however, " without " here is not to be made synonymous
with the external world of sense-perception. Yet only on the basis of
such a confusion of terms would it be possible to assert that a " recep
tion from without" must be one mediated by external sense-perception.

The Origin of Messianic Prophecy. 3 7
former case the medium is purely psychological, while
in the latter it is external sense-perception ; whence,
secondly, it appears that such expressions as millibbam
and Id' millibbenu J refer throughout essentially only to
the contents of the Divine message, not to its outfit in
form and mode of presentation. In the end, even Konig
himself is constrained to admit so much, for he says (in
loc. cit. ii. p. 362) : " If we base our conclusions solely
upon the testimony of the prophets themselves, we can
not affirm that the phrase ' not from our own heart '
signifies : Our heart takes no part in the formal shaping
of the report we give of the revelation. < On the con
trary, the prophets intend, in what we have called their
third principal utterance, only to uphold the Divine
originality and integrity of their message as against
adversaries. The phrase is neither designed nor fitted
to prove anything contrary to the proposition that the
receivers of revelation have woven Divine threads after
a Divine pattern into a Divine-human web." And
this admission does not — as might be supposed from
the last words — relate merely to the prophets' own
additions, but also to what is expressly designated as
the Divine speech ; for, according to ii. p. 361, it can
not be concluded from the personal testimony of the
prophets " that the Divine word - revelation must
have been formulated in all its words and sentences
precisely as it is reproduced in the deliverances of the
prophets." In the various other expressions used to denote the
1 Not from our oivn heart.

38 Messianic Prophecy.
Divine revelation made to the prophets, there lies, as
in the lo' millibbenv, already noticed, in various forms
but always with the same import, the general concep
tion that the Divine word is received as something pro
ceeding from God and presented by Him — something,
therefore, received " from without inwards ; " and, as
the revealing God as a Person stands over against the
person of the prophet, it is only natural that the
expressions most commonly used to describe the rela
tion between God and the prophet should be borrowed
from the customary form of immediate intercourse
between person and person. It is by speaking and
hearing that human persons interchange thought and
spiritual experience in general. Similarly, God speaks
and the prophet hears. It ought, however, to be un
derstood, as a matter of course, that things similarly
described are not necessarily similar to each other.
It cannot be assumed without proof that the inter
course of God with a prophet is quite the same in kind
with the intercourse of men among themselves. In
particular, it cannot be assumed that this intercourse
is mediated by external sense - perception. Every
Israelite knew that God was not a Person who. belonged
to the external, sensible world, and that, therefore,
when He was spoken of in human terms the phrases
could not be understood in quite the ordinary sense.1
1 The following remark of Kbnig's is mildly characterised as very
ill-considered (ii. p. 179, note 3): "How can Jeremiah's frequent
phrase, 'And Jehovah said unto me ' (1. 7, etc.), be made to bear any
other meaning than, e.g., 'Hanameel said unto me' (32. 8)? To-
give different senses to the same words remains for ever an exegetical

The Origin of Messianic Prophecy. 3 9
The prophets, therefore, could employ the common
phrases of human intercourse to denote the intercourse
between God and the prophets, without intending to
say that the Divine speech was addressed to them in
an externally audible way. The essential thing they
wish to express is, that there has been a communication
from a Person to a person ; and this by no means
excludes the possibility that the communication is one
only internally audible, taking place in the domain of
the spirit, and not in the sensible world. Similarly,
a non-sensible mode of communication is by no means
excluded by the fact that, in some individual instances,
the prophets declare that they have heard the Divine
word " with their ears" (Isa. 5. 9, 22. 14, Ezek. 3. 10,
9. 1. 5, 40. 4, 44. 5), although Konig urges the con
trary with special vehemence (in loc. cit. pp. 158, 179,
note 3, 181). For even if in these cases the phrase,
" with mine ears," were to be taken with, absolute
literalness, we should not be justified in inferring a
general rule from isolated cases,1 in which sensible per
ception may have had part in the reception of the
revelation. And if the word "hear" is, by a trope
undeniably legitimate, used in a sense not strictly
literal, it is hard to see why " to hear with the ears "
might not be intended in a sense other than literal.
o
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).
1 It is a violent and unwarranted exaggeration on the part of Konig
(ii. p. 181) to affirm that the prophets were "constantly" saying,
" We have heard it with the ears."

40 Messianic Prophecy.
It is, in fact, nothing more than a way of adding
impressive emphasis to the simple " hear " (cp. Ps.
44. I).1
But, besides all this, there is no lack of definite
indications that, by their use of the expressions bor
rowed from intercourse between human persons, the
prophets did not intend to express an audible speech
of God, or a hearing with the bodily ear. God must
awaken (heir '<W?i=arouse the ear), or ope\n (pathach
'oz — ), or discover-to (galah 'oz — ) (Isa. 5 0. 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 the
faculty of inner perception adapted to supersensible
communications ? 2 Further, besides the usual dibber
'el (to speak to), there is employed, to denote the speech
1 Konig cannot mean to deny that the bodily ears are not meant in
every instance of the use of the phrase in question (cp. Isa. 6. 10). He
does not, we should think, propose to understand literally the phrases
in which Ezekiel describes the opening of his mouth and the eating of
the book-roll (Ezek. 3. 1-3). Why then insist that, in such phrases as
lifting up the eyes or hearing with the ears, the bodily eyes and ears
must be meant (Konig, ii. pp. 39 f., 75 f.)?
2 Konig (in toe. 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 quickening of the bodily sense of
hearing. So correspondingly (and here he is partly right) with the
opening or uncovering of the eyes. But surely bodily hearing is just as
little meant in the passages he quotes as in Job 33. 16, 36. 15, and
Isa. 48. 8. The expression gdldh 'ozen is indeed sometimes used of
communication by means of ordinary sensible speech (1 Sam. 20. 2,
also vv. 12 and 13, 22. 8. 17, Ruth 4. 4) ; but even in these passages 'ozSn
does not directly signify the bodily ear. On the contrary, the expres
sion is borrowed from the language of revelation (cp. 2 Sam. 7. 27,
1 Chron. 17. 25), and signifies the revelation of sonnething hitherto
concealed. The mere fact of the constant use of the singular number

The Origin of Messianic Prophecy. 41
of God or an angel to the prophet, the phrase dibber
V (to speak in),1 which does not, of course, mean to
speak in a person, 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.2 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 lo' millibbenu.
But by the fact that they employ other phrases than
hearing, or hearing vnth the ears, to denote their inward
reception of the Divine word, or, generally, its com-
in the expressions in question 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.
1 Cp. 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.
2 Konig (in loc. 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," hut " 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 be 'ozne (to speak in the
ears of). We have riot 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.
munication,the prophets indicate clearly how far it is from
their intention to represent the word of God as sensibly
sounding in their ears. Thus, e.g., the word of God is
described as meat or as a written roll, which the prophet
must eat (Jer. 15. 16, Ezek. 2. 8, 3. 2 f.); or it is put
into the mouth of the prophet (Num. 23. 5. 16, Deut.
18.' 18, Jer. 1. 9) ; or the prophet sees it and God shows
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 1 — is that most
commonly and with preference employed by the pro
phets to denote a Divine communication, can be ex
plained 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
hithnabbe' (the prophetic gift), and in particular
qualifies the prophet to speak in the name of Jehovah,
and to announce His counsel and will,2 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,
1 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 Chron.
15.1 f., 20. 14 ff., 24. 20.

The Origin of Messianic Prophecy. 43
7. 12 is an express statement of the Spirit's mediation,
Tlue words which Jehovah Sabaoth hath sent through (V)
His Spirit by means of (beyadh) the former prophets ;
cp. also Neh. 9. 30, and Thou gavest them witness
through thy Spirit by means of Thy prophets. Further,
the words of the false prophet Zedekiah, Which 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 speech of the Spirit of Jehovah
are synonymous expressions; and, finally, it appears
from 2 Sam. 23. 2 f., whether we render the bi of ver. 2
by to me or by through me, and whether in the former
case we understand a revelation made directly to David
himself or one mediated by Nathan, that the com
munication of tbe Divine word to David was mediated
by the Spirit of Jehovah.1
We have thus good ground for describing the ordi
nary mode of revelation as one that implies, on the
side of God, a pecular inward speech [Einsprache=
literally, a speaking into, as if what the prophet
spoke out had first to be conveyed in. — Tr.J mediated
by His Spirit, and on the side of the prophet a cor
responding psychical operation of inward hearing.2
1 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. 80, 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 require, as a rule, to conceive of as
simply a certainty as to the will and counsel of God
wrought immediately in the spirit of the prophet by the
Spirit of God.1 It is a certainty that has not come to
him by way of reflection, or, in general, by any usual
mode of original activity. The prophets are clearly
conscious that it is something given them by God, that
they are receiving His commands 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 subjectivity of
the prophet. We must insist rather that there is an
actual converse of the living personal God with the
person of the prophet.2 On the other hand, this in-
by Oehler (art. ' ' Weissagung, " p. 636, Theologie des A Iten Testamentes,
ii. pp. 187 ff. ), according to which the psychical activity of the prophet
is represented as an inward or immediate intuition — a phrase with
which conceptions alien to the true state of the case readily associate
themselves. See, in particular, the misleading remarks of von Orelli
(in loc. cit. p. 39) on the scenographic character of prophecy. If an
"intuition" mean only that "the subject knows the object as imme
diately given and not produced by his own activity," no objection can,
of course, be made to the use of the word. Neither is it to be denied
that prophetic knowledge — specially if it relate to the future course of
history — has in many respects an "intuitive character," inasmuch 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, consequently, his peculiar knowledge emerges to
consciousness in the form of intuition. (See below, and cp. Studien u.
Kritiken, Jahrg. 1883, pp. 805 f.)
1 Cp. H. Schultz in loc. cit. i. pp. 173 f., ii. pp. 46 f. In the 2nd
ed. pp. 227 f., 232 f.
1 What right has Konig (in loc. cit. i. pp. 78, 82, 88, ii. p. 155)
to presuppose the impossibility of such inward assurance or of such

The Origin of Messianic PropJiecy. 45
wardly assuring operation of the Spirit of God upon
the spirit of the prophet cannot take place arbitrarily.
There must be law and method. Man's spiritual
experience is governed by a Divinely-established order,
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 passim), reduced to a merely " immanent "
process.1 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 mediated.2 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 aud place ?
1 Cp. Rothe's detailed treatment of the relation of miracle to the
order of nature (Zur Dogmatik, pp. 87 ff.).
2 That these propositions cannot be attested by express citations
from the prophets, forms no valid ground of objection to them. Kbnig'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 them-y, based, indeed, on a proper appreciation of Ihe
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 prophetic 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.
that the cooperation of the prophet's original powers
involved in this act of reception is by any means
necessarily of an unusual kind, transcending the
ordinary processes of the spiritual life after the
manner 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
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 —

The Origin of Messianic Prophecy. 47
apart, in fact, from the so-called testimonium internum
Spiritus Sancti. " 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
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. He 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
by God Himself to their hearers or readers. They
have not that full consciousness of speaking in the
name and commission of Jehovah, which would war
rant in their text that transition to the direct speech
of God which is so frequent in the prophetic writings.1
This very obvious difference, however, arises from the
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 Jehovali, an interpreter of the
Divine will, a bearer of the continuous revelation of
God 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
1 The perception of this difference has given rise to the well-known
Rabbinical doctrine that the prophetic writings were inspired by the
Ruach Hannebhu'ah (the Spirit of Prophecy), whereas the Hagiograplia
resulted only from the general and commoner inspiration of the Ruach
Hakkodhesh (the Spirit of Holiness).

The Origin of Messianic Prophecy. 49
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 him, 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 peculiar 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 be announced as
the will and purpose of God.1
Of course, however, this consciousness of vocation
1 Similar is the case of the man who having, apart from the possi
bility of much reflection, spoken the right word in difficult circum
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 off 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 Prophecy.
could not be 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, the strength of his
consciousness of a Divine mission is hardly conceiv
able apart frorn 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.1 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.2
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,
1 Cp. my remarks in Stud. u. Krit. 1872, pp. 558 ff. ; Ktjper in he.
cit. pp. 442 f.
2 The analogy is noted also by Oehler, art. "Weissagung," p.
639, Theologie des Alten Testamentes, ii. § 211. I may be allowed
to remark that 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, but rather an experience as real
and matter-of-fact as any outward occurrence1— 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.1 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," 2 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 ; 3 and the confidence with

1 Cp. Hitzig, Die Psalmen, i. p. 128.
2 " Religibser Verirrung," Konig, ii. pp. 200 f.
8 2 Cor. 12. 8 f.

52 Messianic Prophecy.
which Peter, after prayer, called to the dead Tabitha :
" Tabitha, arise."1 Oehler 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,2 that prayer
is even named as the condition of revelation,3 and that
correspondingly the word 'anah (answered) is employed
to denote the answer to prayer, which consists of a
revelation made to the prophet.4
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.5 Similarly the assurance as to what is.
contained in the secret counsel of God, which the
1 Acts 9. 40. 2 Jer. 32. 16 ff., 42. 4, Hab. 1. 3 Jer. 33. 2 f.
4 Jer. 23. 35. 37, 33. 3, Micah 3. 7, Hab. 2. 2.
5 Kbnig's polemic against our use of the above analogy (in loc. cit. ii.
pp. 196 ff. ) rests almost entirely upon a misunderstanding. He supposes
us to affirm that the possession of assurance of answer to prayer makes
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," only "a conscious or unconscious inference from
the general to the particular in the matter of saving assurance," some
thing, therefore, that belongs entirely to the sphere of mere subjectivity,
forces one to asjc, Where in this view is his faith in the living God ?
The fact is, that just as there are different degrees of certainty in regard
to the answer of prayer, so there are, according to circumstances,
different degrees in the inward certainty of a prophet as to whether or
not the word thathas 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 Prophecy. 53
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 the faculty 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
when it is roused to activity by the force of deep
ethical convictions.1
If this be a correct description of the regular mode
of revelation to the prophets, it becomes clear, in the
first place, how completely a normal ethico-religious
attitude on the part of the prophet to God is an
essential prerequisite to the proper exercise of his
gift.2 For, as we have remarked above, it is precisely
the 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
1 For a detailed treatment of the natural basis of the charisma pro-
pheteias, see Tholuck in loc. cit. pp. 1 ff. , and the passages there cited.
Kbnig's objections to the concluding sentence above result from gross
misinterpretation (in loc. cit. ii. pp. 201 f.).
2 Cp. on this Oehler, art. " Weissagung,'' pp. 639 f.

54 Messianic Prophecy.
God, 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 which
reflection, phantasy,- and in general all the spiritual
powers display themselves in the measure and manner
prescribed by his own- spiritual idiosyncracy.1 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
millibbo (from his heart), but yet at the same time, in
a true sense, does so proceed — as is acknowledged even
by Konig (in loc. cit. ii. pp. 361 f.). Finally, — 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 be
unmediated. It cannot be an act that stands in no
organic connexion with the cognitions, concepts, and ideas
already present to the mind of the prophet. Rather
must it be organically summoned by the Spirit of God to
ihe light of consciousness out of that which is already
1 Cp. Pfleiderer, Die Religion, ihr Wesen u. ihre Qeschichtc, i. p. 379.

The Origin of Messianic Prophecy. 5 5
the spiritual property of the prophet, and that without
hurt to the freshness proper to revealed truth.1 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 and
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 purely external way drawn into its
life-process and activity. In the one sphere as in
the other, there can be appropriation only through
a process of assimilation conditioned by the laws of
the receptive faculties ; and this process of assimilation
1 Konig, indeed, conceives of two " sums " of thoughts and concepts,
sharply and definitely distinguished from each other, the one of which
springs 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.

56 Messianic Prophecy.
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 beginnings of its growth, 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 1
(see above, p. 45). The degree of this organic con
nexion between 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, objectively regarded, may
be simply the unfolding of a certain germinal know-
1 As regards Kbnig's criticism of the above (in loc. cit., iL pp. 217 ff. ),
be it remembered that we here presuppose as proven the position that
the hearing cf the speech of God is an inner assurance regarding God's
counsel and will. But even if we accepted Kbnig's literalistic view,
his hypothesis of an accommodation on the part of the speaking God
would have to be extended to the point required by the theory we
prefer, unless, indeed, we are content to assume that the prophet was,
like a pupil 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). ,

The Origin of Messianic Prophecy. 57
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.
Atthe 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
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
if the related terms were but the necessary steps in a
process of abstract reasoning. The rule may 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.
In spite of their newness, they cannot be added
to his existing knowledge in an external way, but
they must so grow 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 whole, the
truth may fairly be regarded as a new 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 truth organically to blossom forth from them
under the reciprocal action of those influences which
by the' laws of their own life-force they exert upon
one another in the natural progress of their develop-

The Origin of Messianic Prophecy. 5 9
ment. It is really only a revelation of such a kind
and manner that can be called worthy of God. 1
Hence it follows that the question as to the origin
of a Messianic prophecy is answered in a truly
satisfactory way only when it is shown how that origin
has been psychologically mediated, or more particularly,
what roots and germs of it were contained in the previous
consciousness of the prophet, and in what way it was
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
1 In the above dissertation we have expressly noticed only the mode
of revelation which we have recognised as the one that is usual — 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 pyscho
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. pp. 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 rd'dh, never chdzdh (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 would surely
have taken care to mark the alleged contrast between rd'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
his time, has, 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 ,
i 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, chdzuih, chazon, chizzdyon, of the visions of the
true prophets, 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 Konig himself lias been at pains to show that
such is in both particulars the usage of the prophets '(pp. 33 ff.). The
real 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
splitting, cleaving 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 ra'ah
(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
frequency in prose. Thus rd'dh smihir'ah 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 prose 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 self-deceiving character of the visions of the
false prophets. For this such common additions as shav', sheker,
millibbam, etc. (vanity, falsehood, from their heart), are necessary.
In spite, moreover, of all that Konig says, the fact cannot be blinked,
that the derivative ro'ih is used in Isa. 28. 7 of the visions of 'false
prophets ; while, on the other hand, chozim is used in Is. 30. 10 as
parallel to ro'im, and that, in words uttered by the prophet himself,
not in those quoted from the people, and is therefore not exclusively
referable to the false prophets.

The Origin of Messianic Prophecy. 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,
— 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 series 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.
the 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
the 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. But 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 that
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 truths of the Old Testament faith. 1
1 A work therefore, like that of von Orelli's cited above, which
promises to exhibit Old Testament prophecy "in its historical develop
ment," ought not to be content with the traditional mode of showing
how, beginniag from the so-called Proto-Evangel, prophecy advances

The Origin of Messianic Prophecy. 6 3
Hence our object will be to show how it was both
possible and necessary that the Messianic hopes and
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 effort forwards to a glorious
consummation — foreordained by the unalterable decree
of God, and to be reached " in the end of the days"1 —
which are so characteristic of it, and have made it, alone
of the religions of antiquity, the religion of hope.2
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 Blessing of Noah, the Promises to the
Patriarchs, ihe Blessing of Jacob (so called), the Prophecies of Balaam,
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 Vachwrith hayydmim of Isa. 2. 2, Micah 4. 1, etc. — Tr.]
2 Kuper (in toe. 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) :

64 Messianic Prophecy.
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 reliJ
gious and ethical knowledge 1 — 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 the ide,a. We have now to con
sider more minutely the most important of these ideas,
that the revealing operations of the Divine Spirit maintain them
selves in harmony with the laws of the human spirit, and that therefore
all revelation is psychologically mediated. Kbnig'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 "human," to which Divine revelation can be thus absolutely
opposed ? Moreover, Konig himself remarks incidentally, that the
Torath Yaheveh (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 Hauptprobleme der altisraelitischen
Religionsgeschichte, 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 living germ. "

The Origin of Messianic Prophecy. 65
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.1 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,2 and this we regard as something
that remains essentially one and the same; for the
progressive d,evelopment 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.3
1 On this cp. Smend, Ueber die von den Propheten des 8 Jahr-
hwnderts vorausgeseizte Entwickelungstufe der israelitischen Religion,
in Stud. u. Kritik, 1876, Pt. 4, esp. pp. '.622 ff. ; Konig in loc. cit. ii. pp.
334-347 ; and his work, Die Hauptprobleme der altisraelitschen Reli-
gionsgeschichte gegenuber den Entwickelungstheoretikern beleuchtet,
Leipzig 1884.
2 The want of unanimity as to the literary origin of the Pentateuch, in
particular, as to the date of the so-called Orundschrift (Original or Primi
tive Document), is therefore to us a matter of subordinate importance.
3 With this verdict Rbtjss agrees, Die Geschichte der heiligen
Schriften Alten Testamentes, 1881, p. 316.
E

66 Messianic Prophecy.
There are three ideas which, above others, demand
our special attention : the idea of the Covenant, the
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 Kingship.
I. The idea of the covenant on which Jehovah
entered with 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 the Book of the Four Covenants,1 — 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
1 [This document is now more generally known as the Priestly Code.
See Appendix A, Note IV.— Tr.]

The Origin of Messianic Prophecy. 67
consciousness.1 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.2 Still we must remember that
the word occurs in this sense even in Hosea3 and in
some of the admittedly elder portions of the Penta
teuch.4 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 Vrith (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.5
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-
1 Cf. Wellhausen, Geschichte Israels, i. 1878, pp. 434 f. , and Prole
gomena zur Geschichte Israels, 1883, pp. 442 f. [Eng. Transl. p. 402.]
2 Cp. on this Guthe, De foederis notione Jeremiana, Leipzig 1877,
esp. pp. 10 ff.
3 Hos. 6. 7, 8. 1. " E.g. Ex. 19. 5, 24. 7 f.
6 Cp. Reuss, Die Geschichte der h. Schriften Alten Testamentes, pp.
322 and 324 ; KoNia in loc. cit. ii. pp. 338 if., and in the work, Die
Hauptprobleme, etc., pp. 84 f. ; Bredenkamp, Gesetz und Propheten,
1881, pp. 21 ff. Even Guthe (in loc. cit.) admits that by his use of
the term b'rith Jeremiah has not imported any essentially new element
into the conception of the relation of Jehovah to Israel.

68 Messianic Prophecy.
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
covenant. This 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.1 The foundation, therefore, of the conscious
ness of Israel, as regards his peculiar relation to God,
is the belief that Jehovah, the 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 3. 2). Now
undoubtedly there is a view which pervades all the
Pentateuch 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 other 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 this decree in the form of Divine promises-
made to Abraham and his posterity, and confirmed to
the succeeding patriarchs ; 2 and the designation, in
1 Cp. Oehler, Theologie des Alten Testamentes, § 80.
2 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 ff., 18. 18 f., 22. 16 ff.,
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 which 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.1 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 riarallel 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.g. 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 the covenant,
Jehovah is the God of Israel. This by 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 must 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
i
fundamental importance,1 but its continuation is the
fact that Jehovah dwells among His people,2 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,
1 Cp. Jehovah's self-designation in the preface to the Ten Words,
Ex. 20. 2, and passages like Lev. 19. 36, Ex. 6. 6 f., 29. 46, and
many others.
•2 Ex. 29. 45, Lev. 26. 11 f., Ezek. 37. 27.

The Origin of Messianic Prophecy. 7 1
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).1
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 of
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
1 It is not, however, implied in the expression mamlikheth kohctnim
(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 the separateness of Israel from all
other peoples. As the Sanctifier,1 therefore (mekaddesh),
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 from that of
other peoples. Their whole political constitution bears
an impress distinct from that of other States ; 2 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
JEx. 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.
2 Cp. the complaint of Isaiah (2. 6-8).

The Origin of Messianic Prophecy. 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,1 as well as
from ethical stain.2 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.3
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 kadhosh, 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 terms can Jehovah prove Himself Israel's
1 Lev. 11. 44, 20. 26 ; cp. 21. 8. 2 Lev. 19. 2, Amos 2. 7 ff.
3 Lev. 19. 2 ; Num. 15. 40.

74 Messianic 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.1
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. The pre
servation of the covenant, as well as its initial
establishment, must be preeminently the concern of
Jehovah. The decree of election once passed, can neither
be as though it had not been, nor yet can it be
made of none effect,2 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.
2 Ruckg&ngig gemacht werden.

The Origin of Messianic Prophecy. 75
hath He spoken, and shall He not make it good ? " x
Though men are unstable and fickle in their attitude
to God, there is not on that account any changeable-
ness in Him.2 No human action can ever make His
own purpose impracticable to God. He must find
ways and means of carrying it out, and so fulfilling
His promises. — It may well be, indeed, that when
necessarily Jehovah's wrath is turned against Israel,
the exhibition of His covenant-grace is for longer or
shorter time suspended, but the covenant itself cannot
be for ever dissolved. God cannot for ever reject His
chosen people,3 nor can He ever pass upon them, as
upon heathen peoples, a decree of annihilation. In
view of the covenant which He Himself has founded,
in view of the fact that by election and by the promise
sworn to the fathers, Israel is and remains His peculiar
people, God's judgment must be, as regards Israel, of
the nature of chastisement,4' appointed in love, to convert
the people to Himself. God, moreover, knows how
to carry out His loving intention,5 whether it be by
the chastisement itself, or by the glorious exhibition
of His preventive grace, which puts to shame and
eventually conquers even an obstinate contumacy.6
And so soon as the intention of love is effected, or
even while it is being effected, the covenant reverts in
full force : God shows Himself again Israel's God and
1 Num, 23. 19, 1 Sam. 15. 29. 2 Mai. 3. 6.
3 Cp. e.g. Lev. 26. 44 f., 1 Sam. 12. 22, 2 Kings 13. 23.
1 Jer. 10. 24 f., 46. 28, Ps. 69. 27 ff.
6 Lev. 26. 40 ff., Deut. 30. 1 ff.
6 Cp. Ezek. 16. 60 ff, 20. 43 f., 36. 31 f.

76 Messianic Prophecy.
Saviour by redeeming him and making him glorious ;
and that this should be once and for ever again the
final result, is demanded as much by His Holiness
and His Righteousness as by His Faithfulness.1 His
Holiness : for the judgments against Israel consist in
his being given over to the violence of- heathen peoples,
so that it seems for the moment as if human power
were in some degree prevailing against God's kingdom,
and might effectively obstruct the accomplishment of
His decrees ; as if there were ground for the vain
imagination of the heathen, that the God of Israel had
grown faint and could not protect His own, or as if
in human fickleness He no longer concerned Himself
in behalf of His peculiar people. Were He to leave
His own in the power of the heathen, His transcen
dent majesty, His absolute sovereignty over the world,
and the irrevocableness of His decrees would fail to
be known upon earth ; His holy name would be and
would remain desecrated. His honour, therefore,
requires Him to protect His own ; for His own
sake, for His holy name's sake, He must again
redeem Israel ; by the protection and redemption of
His people, and by judgment upon their enemies, He
must display His holiness before the eyes of all
peoples.2 — But His Righteousness also requires Him,
so soon as the end of His punitive judgments is
attained in the conversion of Israel, to take up again
1 See above, and cp. e.g. Ex. 32. 11 ff.
2 Cp. e.g. Num. 14. 13 if., Deut. 9. 26 ff, Ezek. 20. 41, 38. 16.
23, Isa. 48. 9 ff., 52. 5 f. '

TJie Origin of Messianic Prophecy. 7 7
the cause of His people against their heathen
oppressors. For the phrase, righteousness of God, has
a general and a more special meaning. The former
implies that the sentiment and attitude of God
towards men correspond to the standard required, on
the one hand, by His absolutely good will 1 and His
disposition of love ; and, on the other, by the relations
existing between Himself and the individual or the
community. His relation to Israel is, however, by no
means conditioned solely by the attitude of Israel.
It is rather, first and foremost, one founded on His
own declared will of grace. While, therefore, His
dealings with Israel can correspond with His right
eousness only in so far as they are in harmony with
His earnest desire that in His kingdom the evil should
be overcome and the good prevail, it is always required
at the same time that there be an active- operation of
His love, such as will meet the terms of the covenant-
relation. So soon, therefore, as Israel's conversion is
proved by his ceasing to oppose the good-will of God
in the above sense, God's righteousness requires that
He should again, in love, take up the cause of His
people. What is, on the one side — in the entire and
full sense of the word — grace and faithfulness, is also,
on the other, righteousness? But even in the narrower
1 [I.e. His willing what is absolutely good. — Tr.]
2 Cp. e.g. Hos. 2. 19, Ps. 103. 17, and the many other passages
in the Psalms in which — not always indeed with special reference to
Israel as a people — tsedhakah is associated with or is the rhythmical
parallel of chtsedh or emundh (righteousness, mercy, truth), as Ps.
33. 5, 36. 5 f.' 10 f., 40. 10 f., 89. 14, 96. 13, 116. 5, 145. 17 ; see
also the use of ts"dhdkdh in Isa. chaps. 40-66.

78 Messianic Prophecy.
sense of the term, the righteousness of God, His judicial
right-securing righteousness demands that Israel should
be delivered from the power of the heathen so soon as
he turns to his God. For Israel has his rights as
over against the heathen ; he is by comparison more
righteous than they, in so far as he worships the only
true God in the persons of the always surviving
remnant, who, however few in number, are yet faithful
to Jehovah, and compose the true stock of Israel.1
As the righteous Judge, God cannot suffer the wicked
man to doom to destruction one who is more righteous
than he. As in His kingdom He undertakes the
cause of the pious man;so as to protect him from the
violence and deceitful snares of the evil-doer,2 so must
He vindicate for Israel, against the idolatrous heathen,
the rights that belong to the people who worship the
only true God ; and that, by a judicial act which at
once redeems Israel, and destroys his oppressors.3
It is riot difficult to see how Messianic prophecy —
in the wider sense — -both could and must grow out of
the idea of the covenant whose development we have
traced. It resulted, firstly, from the contradiction be
tween idea and reality consequent upon Israel's various
disloyalties ; and, secondly, from the contradiction be
tween idea and reality inherent in the entire character
of the Old Covenant and its theocracy, — a contradiction
1 1 Kings 19. 18, Hab. 1. 13.
2 Cp. e.g. Ps. 31. 1, 71. 2, 129. 4. , t
3 For passages illustrating in detail this aspect of the Divine
righteousness, i.e. as vindicating the peculiar rights of the covenant
people, see esp. Isa. chaps. 40-66, 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 unchanging 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 cornmunion.
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 Messianic Prophecy.
towards the God of Israel, steadily develops itself, and
by the intercourse of prayer with God wins increasingly
an independent significance. The God of Israel
becomes their 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,
which are a matter of personal experience witnessed
in 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.1
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
1 See Appendix A, Note V.

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 lor the individual
member of the nation in reality only a very limited
applicability. Circumcision and the tassels on the
fringe of his garment1 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.2 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.
2 Cp. Hupfeld, Comment, de primitiva et vera festorum apud
Hebraeos ratione, etc., i. pp. 22 ff. F

82 Messianic Prophecy.
Every godly man, who carried the law of his God in
his heart,1 and had his delight in the commands of
Jehovah, which make wise, rejoice the heart, and
refresh the soul, every one who 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,2 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 inwardness 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-people, 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 significance 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
i Ps. 37. 31, Isa. 51. 7. 2 Cp. e.g. Ps. 51. 11 f., 143. 10.

The Origin of Messianic Prophecy. 83
a time when the covenant- relation should have become
in the experience of the whole people, represented 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
plished upon the entire elect community by the
establishment of the true inward covenant-fellowship,
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 — Whayithi lachgm le'lohim x
(and I will be to you a God), or, more fully :
Wehayithi lachgm le'lohim, w*attim tiheyu-li V'am 2
(and I will be to you a God, and ye shall be
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,3 i.e. as initiating the covenant, but also, and
mainly, to designate the relation between Jehovah
and Israel which is to exist in the perfect time* — a
distinct testimony that the Messianic salvation is
1 Gen. 17. 7 f., Ex. 6. 7, 29. 45, Lev. 11. 45, 22. 33, 25. 38, 26.
45, Num. 15. 41.
2 Lev. 26. 12. 3 Jer. 7. 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 Prophecy.
apprehended consciously and clearly as the full
realisation of the idea of the covenant.
But even the inward relation of fellowship, proper
to the godly 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
obscuration of his personal 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.
But, secondly, the blissful fellowship with- God, en
joyed by devout souls, was also liable to obscuration
through their own sin — and that, the more their
knowledge of the will of God was 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 Prophecy. 8 5
Old Testament sacrifices of atonement, rather by their
firm faith in the sin-forgiving grace of God. For both
the law and the prophets attest the gospel contained
in the proclamation : " The Lord, the Lord God,
merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in
goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands,
forgiving iniquity, and transgression, and sin.1
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
deeper 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
!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. 31.

86 Messianic Prophecy.
sense of His nearness should be prevented by some
mightier and more lasting operation of the Spirit of
God 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
his Eedeemer and Saviour. With the knowledge of
the need for salvation, there grew 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 be in
prospect a revelation of His glory far outshining all
previous manifestations — some new and great deed of
grace and salvation — something to remove the barrier
to full and lasting covenant-fellowship — in short, am
operation of His sin-forgiving grace, which should 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 ; x 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.3
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 prophecy.
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 intimacy4
— 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,5 that all
1 Deut. 30. 6. 2 Jer. 31. 33.
3 Jer. 32. 39, Ezek. 11. 19 f., 36. 26 f. i Amos 3. 7.
6 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 presentation— in
the fact of prophecy — of the goal which 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 the 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. 40-66. With this point
we need not concern ourselves further here. Enough
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 Messianio 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

The Origin of Messianic Prophecy. 8 9
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 be 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 by 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.1 It is to be a
kingdom in which " mercy and truth are met together,
righteousness and peace have kissed each other;"2 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,3 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.4 As Judge He makes it His task to uphold
1 The opinion suggested by Vatke (Bibl.' Theol. i. pp. 207 ff.,
260 ff., 476 ff.), and shared by Wellhausen, 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 (Buch der
Richter, 2nd ed. on Judg. 8. 23), refuted even by the Song of
Deborah : cp. also Ex. 15. 18, Deut. 33. 5. There can be no
question, however, in any case, but that the 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.g. 2 Sam. 15. 4, 1 Kings 3. 9.

90 Messianic Prophecy.
equitable order and the authority of His law in His
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
frequently the censures of the prophets are specially
directed against the covetous violence of the powerful
and the venality of the judges, and how often in the
Psalms the " afflicted " must cry to God for help,
because as persons without either protection or rights,
they are given over to their powerful persecutors;
Too often in the kingdom, that was designed to be a
kingdom of righteousness, the reins of power were in
the hands of evil-doers ; too often must those who
were " quiet in the land " x learn by bitter experience
how little, as yet, the Kingdom of God was a kingdom
of peace ; in actually existing conditions and circum
stances the Kingly government of God 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
1 Ps. 35. 20.

The Origin of Messianic Prophecy. 9 1
people, so as to suppress all crime, and bring His King
dom into entire conformity with its ideal ! x
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 ; 2 to Him alone therefore all honour and
worship are due ; to Him every knee should bow, and
every tongue swear.3 As Creator of heaven and earth,
Israel's King is also King and Lord of the whole earth,4
the King of all kings, and the Lord of all lords ; 5
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,6
and hence most frequently the " earth," the " world,"
the " peoples," the " nations," 7 are named as the object
1 Cp. e.g. Isa. 24. 23, 52. 7, Micah 4. 7.
2 Cp. Deut. 4. 35. 39, 32. 39 et passim. 3 Isa. 45. 23.
1 Josh. 3. 11. 13, Ps. 47. 7, Ex. 19. 5, Ps. 24. 1, etc.
6 Deut. 10. 17. 6 Cp. Gen. 18. 25.
7 Cp. Diestel, "Die Idee der Gerechtigkeit im Alten Testament,"
in the Jahrbiichern fiir deutsche Theologie, v. 1860, pp. 176 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
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 the
nationalistic constitution of the existing theocracy, and
by the sharp contrast in which at first Israel was
required to stand to other peoples ; but 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 whole earth become a
kingdom of peace.1 This result was all the more
1 The universalistic tendency proper to the Old Testament religion,.

The Origin of Messianic Prophecy. 9 3
inevitable from the circumstance that the Israelite
possessed a full and clear consciousness of the unity of
the human race. Though he felt compelled to regard
the heathen world as a massa perditionis, forgotten of
God,1 defiled by the abominations (to'ebhoth) of their
filths (shikkutsim) of worship,2 and ready for the exter
minating stroke of the Divine vengeance,3 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, " 4
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 Noah. 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 particular
istic. They allow, of course, other religions to exist peacefully along
side of themselves, or even, it may be, borrow elements from them.
But this toleration results simply from the circumstance that they
rest entirely upon a national foundation. Their national gods profess
neither the power nor the desire to claim recognition from other
peoples as the only gods. It is notoriously only Buddhism which in
any degree shares the universalism of the Old Testament religion.
1 Ps. 9. 17. 2 Isa. 35. 8, Ezra 6. 21 9. 11.
3 Jer. 10. 25, Ps. 79. 6. 4 Gen. 3. 20.

94 Messianic Prophecy.
is that all men — without difference 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 essential 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 first1 birth special prominence is given to the
truth, 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 the 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 blood
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.2 But if the
historical conception of the descent of all human beings
from one pair contains this ethico - religious kernel,3
1 I.e. according to the Primitive Document.
2 Cp. e.g. Isa. 58. 7, Prov. 14. 31, 17. 5, Job 31. 15, etc.
3 To this kernel let those be referred who are afraid that the com
bined efforts of philological and historical inquiry on the one hand,

The Origin of Messianic Prophecy. 95
there must have been in the consciousness of the
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 what precise way the Kingdom of
God ivould become a universal monarchy, embracing all
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 ml or that the mighty Nebuchadnezzar is but
and of physiology on the other, may possibly establish the conclusion
that the human race could not have spread itself over the earth from
one starting-point. The kernel of ethico-religious truth would remain
unaffected 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 antiquity.
1 Isa. 10. 5. 15.

96 Messianic Prophecy.
His " servant"1 to accomplish upon Israel a chastise
ment ordained by Him and announced long before ; or
that Cyrus is Jehovah's shepherd, His anointed, the
man of His counsel,2 whom He has raised up for the
sake of His 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
peculiar people ? 3 Even in the Jehovistic portions of
the 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 earth
shall be filled with the glory of the Lord,4 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 the 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 that decree. But, besides the part played by this
judicial revelation of His glory, a similar purpose,
according to other passages, is served by His gracious

1 Jer. 25. 9, 27. 6, 43. 10. 2 Isa. 44. 28, .45. 1, 46. 11.
3 Isa. 41. 2, 43. 14, 44. 28, 45. 1. 13.
4 Knobel's remark on this passage, " He hears the intercessory
petition, but swears at the same time that the earth shall be filled with
His glory," is inaccurate. The subject-matter of the oath, introduced
by hi, begins to be stated only in ver. 22 f. Bunsen's translation,
" And all the world is full of the glory of the Eternal," is, however,
also wrong, being forbidden by the Imperf. upyimmdle'; cp. Ps. 72. 19;
and, for the usage to express the present, Isa. 6. 3, Ps. 33. 5, 119. 64.
Keil rightly objects to the presential sense in the Numbers passage.

The Origin of Messianic Prophecy. 97
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 bless themselves (or be blessed)
in (or by) thee (or thy seed)." x For even according to
the rendering that is supported by the parallels, Gen.
48. 20, Ps. 72. 17,2 and now generally admitted8 to
be the right one, at least in those passages where the
Hithpa'el 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, 26. 4, 28. 14.
2 Cp. also Deut. 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.
3 Cp. Hengstenberg, Christologie, 2nd ed. i. p. 52. That in the pas
sages, where instead of the Hithpa'el the Niph'al is used, the promise is
to be taken in the different sense, that all peoples, etc., are to be 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 Baur's (Geschichte der alttestamentlichen
Weissagung, 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 he
thou a blessing," which are to be explained according to Zech. 8. 13,
and which therefore support our interpretation, how can it be supposed
probable that, immediately after a promise to the patriarchs themselves
of a blessing in the form of numerous posterity, victorious dominion
overall 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 Prophecy.
all nations will recognise in the Israelites the " blessed of
Jehovah " (Isa. 65.2 3), 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.1
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 prophetic 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.2
1 Cp. the beginning of the fulfilment of this prophecy in Gen. 26.
28 f.
2 Cp. my article, "Der Missionsgedanke im Alten Testament," in
Dr. Warneck's Allgem. Missionszeilschrift, 1880, pp. 453 ff.

The Origin of Messianic Prophecy. 9 9
Finally, all that comes under the designation of evil
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 condition of the world and humanity : no more
sickness ; x patriarchal longevity ; 2 peace among the
beasts, as among human nations, and peace between
man and beast ; 3 the holy land made like the garden
of Eden,4 transformed into it by the wonderful stream
that goes forth from the dwelling-place of Jehovah,5 is
laden with blessing, and makes even the waters of the
Dead Sea healthful,6 with the trees of life on its banks,
whose never-failing fruits are for food, and its never-
1 Isa. 33. 24. 2 Isa. 65. 20, Zech. 8. 4.
3 Hos. 2. 18, Isa. 11. 6 ff., 65. 25. 4 Ezek. 36. 35.
B Cp. Joel 4. 18, Zech. 14. 8. 6 Cp. Gen. 2. 10 ff.

100 Messianic Prophecy.
fading leaves for healing ; 1 finally, the destruction of
the power of death itself and the end of all weeping.2 —
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 God she
exists, thus giving to her also a share in the 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,3 takes place with a view to the renewal
and transfiguration of the world ; its result is the new
heaven and the new earth.4
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
that 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 fiesh that " they shall .
come every new moon and every Sabbath to the city of
God to worship Jehovah," 5 but where also it is said, on
1 Ezek. 47. 1 ff.
2 Isa. 25. 8 ; cp. 26. 19, Dan. 12. 2.
3 Isa. 24. 18 ff, 34. 4, 51. 6.
4 Cp. Isa. 30. 26, 65. 17, 66. 22. 6 Isa. 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 own
place1 — 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, the 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 Zeph. 2. 11.

102 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 sins1 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
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,2 therefore, it
is necessary for us to investigate the idea of this insti
tution.3 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 David in 2 Sam. 23. 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 HO.4
1 Cp. e.g. Ezek. 36. 25 ff., Zech. 13. 1. 2 [I.e. Part I.— Tr.]
3 Cp. on this Diestel, "Die Idee des theokratischen Kbnigs," in the
Jahrbb. fur deutsche Theologie, vol. viii. pp. 536 ff., and Oehler's
article, "Konige, Konigthum in Israel," in Herzog's Realencyklopadie.
* Decisive against the Messianic interpretation of these psalms, and
for their being referred to definite historical kings (which ones, we
need not here ask), are the considerations : first, that there is absolutely
no proof that the psalmists intended to designate & future personage ;
and second, that not a single expression occurs in these psalms that goes

The Origin of Messianic Prophecy. 103
In the theocracy as founded by Moses there was as
yet no human kingship. The idea that Jehovah Him
self conducted the regimen of His peculiar people, and
that all rights of lordship belonged to Him alone, was
carried out with the utmost strictness. True, He made
use of human organs in the exercise of His kingly
rule; Moses himself, his successor Joshua, the judges
whom He raised up in times of hostile oppression, were
the leaders and guides of His people. But they were
not suffered to claim any lordly power or kingly right
over the people and land of Jehovah ; this was reserved
entirely for God Himself. Their position rested solely
and entirely upon the fact that they had received a
personal commission from the Divine King, in the
execution of which they were at every moment entirely
dependent upon Him. As in later times the captain
of the host stood at the head of all the male citizens
who could bear arms, without any surrender on the
part of the king either of the lordly power or of the
rights peculiar to his office, these commissioned ones
stood at the head of the people of God, without either
independent power or kingly right. Hence their office
was not hereditary, and hence also there was always
a possibility that times might recur in which there
should be ho human leader at the head of the people.
Like the prophets, they were extraordinary orga.ns of
beyond what, according to the testimony of other passages, might be
said, particularly in poetic discourse, of some present king. Only
Ps. 72 [for this reason bracketed above. — Tr.] will have to be excepted
as an echo of the Messianic oracles of the prophets, and be referred,
with greatest probability, to the future Messiah.

104 Messianic Prophecy.
the Divine King, to be " raised up" only when the con
dition of the people of God urgently demanded such
extraordinary help. The establishment of a human
kingship as a stable and lasting institution implied an
unmistakable descent from the ideal height of the
Mosaic theocracy ; it was a materialising and external
ising of the Kingdom. The idea of the Kingship of
Jehovah had not taken such a hold upon the hearts of
all the citizens as that the occasional raising up of
individuals, mighty in the Spirit of the Lord, should
have sufficed for the preservation of the theocracy;.1
In consequence of the actual, ethico-religious condition
of the people, the preservation and consolidation of the
Kingdom had to seek attainment rather by the external
institution of a human regimen than by the spiritual
power of the idea of the theocracy. Herein lay a great
danger; for the condition and fate of the theocracy
thus became in great measure dependent upon the will
and conduct of the one individual who happened to be
actually in possession of the governing power — a
dependence which was naturally much greater, and, as a
rule, much more dangerous than any which could result
from the position of individuals personally called by
the Divine King to some extraordinary task. It im
plied, moreover, a certain actual rivalry to the King
ship of Jehovah, a lowering of His kingly power and
i The Song of Deborah (Judg. 5) praises the mithnaddebhim bd'dm
(those offering themselves among the people, vv. 2 and 9), who gave
willing obedience to the summons of Jehovah, but at the same time
takes some of the tribes to task for withdrawing themselves from the
holy duty of war.

The Origin of Messianic Prophecy. 105
right of possession in His people and land. His hold
of the reins of power became, in a certain degree,
secondarj' instead of immediate — a state of affairs that
might readily appear irreconcilable with the idea of
the Theocracy, inasmuch as the human king presented
himself as the nearest possessor of sovereign rights,
with power over land and people.
There was, however, another side to the case. The
human kingship could hardly be said to be really irre
concilable with the idea of the Theocracy. Only, it
must be brought so completely into line with the
Divine Kingship, that Jehovah's right of lordship and
possession should appear at the same time as that of
the king, and vice versa. In this view the new insti
tution was. not something alien to the organism of the
Theocracy, or in contradiction with its idea ; it pre
sented itself rather as something that had groivn out of
it as from a native germ.
And if by its erection the Theocracy lost something
of its ideal character, there was a counter-balancing
gain in the external consolidation, which the actual
condition of the public life of Israel demanded. For
an experience which dated from the time of the judges
had taught that the security and independence of the
theocratic people, as over against their neighbours, the
closer connexion of the individual tribes with the
unity of the national organism, and a prosperous con
duct of public affairs in harmony with the will of
Jehovah, could be secured only by a powerful and
undivided leadership. Some recompense, therefore, for

106 Messianic Prophecy.
what the idea of the Divine Kingship had lost of its
native force through the relaxation of the ethico-reli
gious spirit of the people might fairly be expected from
its embodiment in a permanent external institution.
Such a result lay indeed in the path of historical
development that began with the institution of a
special priesthood ; it corresponded to the character of
popular religion in Israel in its earliest form (Mosaism),
that the idea of the Divine Kingship was as little able
as the idea represented in the priesthood to assert itself
in permanent practical validity apart from embodiment
in a stable external institution. Hence it soon became
possible to recognise that such an institution filled up
a hitherto existing gap in the organic system of the
Theocracy, and that it was an arrangement whose
necessity to the existence and future development of
His Kingdom God had from the beginning kept in
view — always, of course, on the presupposition that
the king himself conceived his calling and position in
a way conformable to the idea of the Kingdom of God.
— Such a conception of the human kingship is apparent
in the so-called Primitive Document of the Pentateuch,
in the promises to the patriarchs that kings should
come out of their loins ; J it meets us in the oracles of
Balaam, according to which the glory proper to the
people of God culminates in the kingship, in parti
cular, in the star that should arise out of Jacob.2 On
the other hand, in the traditions relating to the origin
of the kingship we are confronted with two different
1 Gen. 17. 6. 16, 35. 11. 2 Num. 23. 21, 24. 7. 17.

The Origin of Messianic Prophecy. 107
points of view which appear in sharp contrast. Ac
cording to the one,1 Samuel is still entirely of the
mind of Gideon2 in his view of the inconsistency of
the human with the Divine kingship. He acquiesces
in the people's desire for a king, originating as it did
solely in the perception of the accession of force which
their heathen neighbours owed to the institution of
royalty, only after a prolonged resistance and in obe
dience to a special indication of the Divine will, but
continues to recognise in it a serious offence against
the rights of Jehovah, a rejection of Him as the King
of the Theocracy ; only reluctantly does he desist from
the effort to maintain the Divine State in its old strict
form, which excluded all human kingship. According
to the other tradition,3 on the contrary, Samuel himself,
as a prophet commissioned by God, called the new
institution into being, without being forced to it by
the people. The question, which of the two accounts
is more in accordance with the facts that actually led
to the elevation of Saul to the kingly dignity, may
here be waived. It is, however, historically most pro
bable that the human kingship was not all at once.
generally recognised as an institution which fitted
into the organism of the Theocracy, and that the
grounds of this initial opposition were able subse
quently to claim a fresh validity in view of the evils
which experience proved to be connected with it.4
1 1 Sam. 8, 10. 17-11. 15; cp. chap. 12. 2 Judg. 8. 23.
3 1 Sam. 9-10. 16.
4 The historical criticism, which has proceeded on the lines of Vatke
(Biblische Theologie, pp. 260 ff.; cp. esp. Wellhausen, Prolegomena.

108 Messianic Prophecy.
At all events, during the reign of Saul, whose govern
ment, more awfocra tic. than theocratic, represented, not
so much the unity as rather the still unreconciled
contrast of the human and the Divine kingship, and who
soon found himself in fierce conflict with the existing
representatives of theocratic power, with prophecy in
the person of Samuel, and with the priesthood (witness
the massacre at Nob !), it was impossible that the
conception of the human kingship as an embodiment
of the idea of the Theocracy could take firm root in the
common consciousness, still less develop itself in detail.
This could happen only when David, a man after God's
own heart,1 sat on the throne ; when in him the king
ship was placed in the right relation to the other
organs of the Theocracy, especially to the prophets, —
the relation, viz., that was demanded by the idea of the
Kingdom of God. Then, for the first time, prophecy
itself, in the oracle of Nathan, announces as a Divine
decree the hereditary nature of the kingship ; the elec
tion of David and his family permanently associates
the idea of the theocratic kingship in the closest pos
sible way with the house of David, and, as thus asso
ciated, it becomes henceforward more and more an
integral moment in the conception of the Kingdom of
God. The last words of David2 testify to the early date
of the expectation, founded upon the promise of the
eternal covenant with the house of David,3 that right-
etc, pp. 265 ff.), insists, of course, that the opposition between the
Divine and the human kingship orginated with the Judaism of the
Exile, or later. > 1 Sam. 13. 14.
2 2 Sam. 23. 1-7, esp. ver. 5. 3 2 Sam. 7. 16.

The Origin of Messianic Prophecy. 109
eous and God-fearing rulers should proceed from the
Davidic stock, and that with them the light of salva
tion shbuld arise in full brilliancy upon the kingdom
of God, and a condition of rich blessing and joyous
prosperity be brought about. With the prophets,
however, the view that the Divine Kingship is in no
way hindered or limited, but rather fully realised,
through the Davidic, is absolutely predominant ; x and
their attitude reveals the fruitful germs of fresh insight
into the saving purpose of God that were implanted
in the consciousness of Israel along with the idea of
the theocratic kingship.
Let us examine more minutely what this idea
carried with it. In doing so we may, without scruple,
adduce the utterances of the later and the latest Old
Testament writings, inasmuch as they are merely
developments from germs native to the idea.
The thought underlying the process by which, for
the consciousness of Israel, the human and the Divine
kingship were brought completely into line with each
other was, that the theocratic king, as the " anointed
of Jehovah," 2 and as the one chosen by God,3 and set
up in His house and kingdom,4 is the visible representa
tive of the invisible God-King. As the vicar of God on
1 Even Hosea forms in this respect no exception (cp. 3. 5) ; his con
demnation of the kingship of the ten tribes (8. 4, 10. 3, 13. 10 f.)
cannot be made to refer to human kingship in general (contra Konig
in loc. cit. ii. pp. 340 ff. ).
2 Cp. e.g. Ps. 89. 20.
3 Cp. in contrast with Hos. 8. 4 : Deut. 17. 15, 1 Sam. 10. 24, 16.
8. 10, 2 Sam. 6. 21, 1 Kings 8. 16, 11. 34, Ps. 78. 70, etc.
4 1 Chron. 17. 14.

110 Messianic Prophecy.
earth, he is the human organ by means of which
Jehovah exercises His government over His people.
His kingship is not merely by God's grace, but also
in God's stead ; his dignity and kingly glory is not
only something granted by God, it is also the earthly
antitype of the glory and majesty of God Himself.1
On the basis of this conception of the relation between
the earthly and the heavenly king, the two are often
named together, and side by side, in order to give
complete expression to the one idea of the theocratic
government.2 Hence, further, the covenant, which
the high priest Jehoiada concludes between Jehovah
on the one hand and the king and the people on the
other, — viz. that they should be a people of Jehovah, —
is at the same time a covenant between the king and
the people.3 Eebellion against the king is at the same
time rebellion against Jehovah Himself.4 Later writers
go so far as to say that the king " sits upon the throne
of the Kingdom of Jehovah," or even that he sits
" upon the throne of Jehovah." 5 Hence it is not
surprising that even in earlier times similar expres
sions were used by poets. Thus, for instance, the poet
of Ps. 45 calls the king's throne the throne of God
(ver. 6).6 Similarly, according to Ps. 110. 1, God said
1 Cp. Ps. 21. 5, 45. 3, with Ps. 96. 6, 104. 1, 111. 3.
2Cp. e.g. Prov. 24. 21, Hos. 3. 5; also 1 Sam. 12. 3. 5.
3 2 Kings 11. 17.
4 Cp. Ps. 2. 2 ; also Prov. 24. 21 and Isa. 8. 6.
5 1 Chron. 28! 5, 29. 23.
6 The rendering of kis'akhd 'Elohim, "thy God-throne," seems after
all the simplest ; there is no objection to it on the score of grammar

The Origin of Messianic Prophecy. Ill
to the king : " Sit thou on my right hand till I make
thine enemies thy footstool," which, strictly speaking,
does not imply so much as the expressions previously
cited; for, besides the first rank and the highest honour
next to God Himself,1 it ascribes to the king pro
perly, only the highest degree of participation in the
sovereignty of God — not, however, the representation
of the invisible King Himself.2 By his being appointed
the organ tlirough whom the heavenly King conducts
the government of His people, the foundation is laid
of an altogether peculiar and close relation of fellow
ship between God and the king — a relation expressed
in the fact that Jehovah is called his father, and the
king Jehovah's son. This designation belongs solely
to him, not even to the priest or the prophet — or any
other individual Israelite. It is applied, besides, only
to Jehovah's peculiar people as a whole, and to them
only on the similar ground of the election. As, there
fore, Israel was among the nations, so was the theocratic
king among the Israelites, in respect of the altogether
unique relation to God. The God-sonship of the entire
nation culminates in the king's personal sonship, just
as Israel's holiness and priestly character culminate in
(cp. Hupfeld on Ps. 45. 6). It is hard to see why 'oldm wa'Mh
cannot be as good a predicate as Voldm wa'idh (Lam. 5. 19),
or as Voldm (contra Ewald and Hitzig). In other cases surely,
according to Ewald himself, a substantive can stand as predicate in
place of "an adjective (cp. Ewald, § 2966). There would, however, be
no material difference even were we to translate with Ewald, Hitzig,
and others, " Thy throne is (a throne) of God for ever and ever."
l Cp. 1 Kings 2. 19, Ps. 45. 9. 12, 1 Mace. 10. 62 f., Matt. 20. 20 ff.
2 The explanation of Ewald — favoured also by Diestel (in loc. cit.
pp. 563 f.)— which requires us to interpret the sitting at the right

112 Messianic Prophecy.
the high priest ; in the one case as in the other, that
which in virtue of the Divine election belongs to the
nation as a whole, is summarised and intensified in the
person of one individual, who is the object of special
Divine election. The immediate proof of God's fatherly
relation to the king lies in the fact that He shows him
special paternal love and care, takes him under His
protection as a sanctified and inviolable person,1 and
exercises towards him all the careful discipline of a
father ; while the king, as Jehovah's son, relies con
fidently upon his God, and upon the rock of his
salvation ; yet is, at the same time, bound to childlike
obedience.2 If he fail of such obedience,3 God chas
tises him, but does not reject him or his house. As for
Abraham's sake He never issues a warrant of destruc
tion against Israel, but always gives him fresh proof
of His grace ; so for David's sake he never suffers His
grace to depart from the king, nor his house to perish.4
hand of the position of the king in the victorious war-chariot, on
which God and the king go out to battle (cp. Ps. 44. 9, 2 Sam. 5. 24)
is certainly incorrect. The analogous utterance, ver. 4, shows clearly
that the reference is to what the king of the theocracy as such is,
not to any1 special Divine assistance in war. How little we are at
liberty to take the details of the picture presented in the following
verses (which actually do describe the king's going forth to war) with
absolute literalness — forgetful of the character of poetic discourse —
appears at once from ver. 5, where the relations are reversed, and
Jehovah is at the right hand of the king. On the meaning of the
adh (until), however, cp. e.g. Gen. 28. 15.
1 Cp. 1 Sam. 24. 7. 11, 26. 9 f., 2 Sam. 1. 14.
2 Cp. 2 Sam. 7. 14, 1 Chron. 22. 10 f., 28. 6, Ps. 89. 26 ff.
3 Cp. 1 Kings 9. 4 f., 1 Chron. 28. 7.
4 2 Sam. 7. 14 f„ Ps. 89. 28. Diestel, in loc. cit. p., 559, refers
appropriately to the historical illustration of this idea in 1 Kings 15.
4 f., 2 Kings 8. 19. It is, in fact, one of the ideas which determines

The Origin of Messianic Prophecy. 113
— But just as God's fatherly relation to Israel implies
that, as his Creator and Maker, He has made Israel
what he is.-^-an independent people and the people of
God,1 — so there is implied in the designation of God,
as father of the theocratic king, that his kingship
originates from God, aud rests upon a transference
to him of God's own kingly power.2
As the organ of Jehovah's kingly government of
His people, the first business of the theocratic king
is to defend the kingdom of God against the attacks
of heathen peoples, and secure its prestige and power
beyond its own border, that the people of God may
dwell in peace and safety, and take among the peoples
of the earth the position that becomes them. He
delivers them from the power of their enemies,3 accom
plishes . the punishment ordained by Jehovah against
nations who have wronged His kingdom and people,4
and, in general, conducts the wars of Jehovah.5 For
such an exercise of the duties of his calling he is fitted
the pragmatism of history-writing in the Books of Kings. Besides
the above passages, cp. 1 Kings 11. 12 f. 32. 36. 39, 2 Kings 19. 34,
20. 6, and the close of the book.
1 Deut. 32. 6, Isa. 43. 1. 15, 45. 11.
2 Cp. Ps. 2. 7. From what we have noted above regarding the
relation of the kingly dignity to that which belongs to the whole
people, the reason of the ascription by the "Great Unknown" (Isa.
55. 3 ff.) of the chasedhe Dhdvidh hanni'Smdnim (sure mercies of
David), as well as of the priesthood to the people of God, as a whole
becomes intelligible. According to his representation there is in
the perfect time no longer either a special priesthood or a, special
kingship. The election of the entire people is brought up to the
level of the election that had hitherto been the privilege of priest and
king. 3 1 Sam. 9. 16, 2 Sam. 3. 18. 4 1 Sam. 15. 5 1 Sam. 25. 28.
II

114 Messianic Prophecy.
by the almighty power of God. Jehovah girds him
with power, endues him with the warrior's courage
and hardihood, and gives him success in all his under
takings.1 He Himself supports him with the ready
help of His right hand (Ps. 20. 6); His hand is ever
with him, and His arm strengthens him; He "beats
down " his adversaries before him (Ps. 89.21 ff.), and
makes all his enemies his footstool. Thus in the
power of his God, the king overcomes and subjects
or else annihilates all enemies of the kingdom.2
In relation, similarly, to the internal conditions and
circumstances of the theocracy, the king is the executor
of the royal will of Jehovah; his judicial activity
secures the maintenance of justice, and the authority
of the law in the kingdom of God : he punishes every
rebellion against the will of God, crushes the insolence
of the violent, helps the poor and the needy to their
rights, preserves thus order and peace, and is to the
land as refreshing rain ; under his government the
righteous spring forth and blossom.3 It is also part
of his office to see to it that the people keep faith
with their God, honour Him, serve Him ; it is his
duty to put down and punish all idolatry, invocation
of the dead, worship at high places, and the like,4 and,
in general, to be the principal overseer, manager, and
leader in all matters pertaining to worship.6 He has
JPs. 18. 29-43, 2 Kings 18. 7.
2 Ps. 2. 8 f., 21. 8 ff., 45. 4 f.
3 Prov. 16. 12-15, 20. 8. 26 ; cp. Ps. 72. 1-7. 12-15.
4 Cp. 1 Sam. 28. 3. 9, 2 Kings 18. 4 ff., 23. 4 ff.
6 2 Sam. 6, 2 Kings 12. 5 ff.

The Origin of Messianic Prophecy. 115
thus to labour to secure that the will of God should be
in every particular recognised and accomplished in His
own kingdom. And for this side also of his appointed
task he is furnished by God with special gifts of govern
ment, as, e.g., Solomon was qualified to exercise the office
of judge through the wisdom granted to him.1 It is
clear from all this that, by the exercise of his royal
functions in war and in peace, abroad and at home,
the king became the mediator through whom Jehovah
imparted help, salvation, and blessing to His people.
It is, of course, to be understood that the whole
content of the idea of the theocratic kingship, as we
have hitherto developed it, rests on the supposition
that the king himself is really possessed of the
disposition, imperative in a representative of the
invisible King, that he honours God, to Whose un
deserved grace he owes all his dignity, in deep
humility,2 trusts Him implicitly, and offers Him
joyful thanks for His help ; 3 that he loves righteous
ness and hates unrighteousness,4 being like God Himself
in his intolerance of wicked men near to his person
or among his servants, and that he accepta in all
earnestness the trust to secure that the ordinances of
justice be maintained in his kingdom, and the theocracy
become in truth — what it is intended to be — a kingdom
of righteousness and peace ; 6 in short, that his royal
will become, through his willing and complete obedience
1 1 Kings 3. 4 ff. ; cp. 2 Sam. 14. 17. 20, 19. 27.
2 Cp. 2 Sam. 6. 21 f. 3 Cp. e.g. Ps. 21. 1. 7.
4 Ps. 45. 4. 6 f. 6 Ps. 101.

116 Messianic Prophecy.
to Jehovah, one with the will of the invisible King. The
will of God is made known to him partly from the
law,1 partly through the prophets, whose duty it is, in
the event of his disobedience, to bring his sin home to
him, and to threaten him with God's judgment. The
ideal theocratic king, however, is one who has been so
changed in heart by the Spirit of God, and so fitted
for the service of Jehovah, that he is himself inwardly
impelled to do what God wills should be done through
him.2 As the theocratic king is the representative of
Jehovah, whose dominion extends over all lands and
peoples, and who will one day be known and acknow
ledged by all peoples as God and King, it is only
a necessary consequence of the position and dignity
assigned him by God, that he should be the first and
the greatest among the kings of the earth,3 and that
his dominion should be an unlimited one; it is ordained
that all kings pay him homage and all peoples serve
him, and one day they will actually do so ; he must
rule from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of
the earth, for God is ready to give him what belongs
by full right to His son ; and what the Almighty wills,
He also gloriously carries out.4 — As, finally, the throne
1 Cp. Ps. 18. 22 f., 2 Kings 11. 12, Deut. 17. 18.
2 Cp. 1 Sam. 10. 6 f. 9, 16. 13. 3 Ps. 89. 27.
. 4 Ps. 2. 8, 72. 8-11, 89. 25 ; ep. Ps. 18. 44-46 and 2 Chron. 32. 23.
Diestel (in loc, cit. pp. 570 ff.) is right in drawing attention to the fact
that it is impossible to estimate aright the significance which the
Israelites attached to the idea of a world-dominion, unless we realise,
on the one hand, their limited geographical horizon, and, on the other,
the very loose relation of. dependence in which, in Anterior Asia,

The Origin of Messianic Prophecy. 117
of God endures for> ever1 so also the throne of the
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, oi
course, does not imply the eternal longevity of the
individual king, — although in poetic hyperbole even
this is assigned him,2 as in court-language it is wished
to him,3 — 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.6 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
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,6 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-Koman 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.
iPs. 45. 6. 2Ps. 21. 4. 31 Kings 1.31.
4 2 Sam. 7. 12-16. 29, 1 Kings 9. 5, 1 Chron. 28. 4, Ps. 89. 28 f. 36 f.
5 Cp. Ex. 40. 15, Num. 25. 13. 6 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
though 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,1 they met with the most
pronounced opposition.2 In the festive fetching of the
Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem, David not only
wears the priestly dress, the linen ephod,3 but he dis
penses to the people the priestly blessing,4 and deems
himself warranted in transferring the high priestly
office to Zadok and Abiathar. Solomon, too, imparts
to the people the priestly blessing,5 ordains a religious
feast,6 and deposes one high priest to install another.7
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 ff.
2 On the passages which seem to assign to the Davidic kings the
management of matters pertaining to the priesthood, cp. art.
" Priester" in the Handwbrterbuch des biblischen Allerthums, p. 1222,
edited by me.
3 2 Sam. 6. 14 ; cp. 1 Sam. 22. 18. 4 2 Sam. 6. 16 ff.
6 1 Kings 8. 14. 55. 6 Ver. 65. 7 1 Kings 2. 26 f.

The Origin of Messianic Prophecy. 119
they share the punishment of his 'sin;1 just as for an
error of the high priest, or of the priesthood in general,
the wrath of God strikes the whole community.2 —
Hence it cannot surprise us that in Ps. 110. 4 we
should read of a sworn promise of God to the king,
appointing him a priest for ever after the order of
Melchisedek, — an utterance which we may have all the
less scruple in referring to the king actually in office
in the time of the poet, that the addition " after the
order of Melchisedek " expressly forbids us to think of
the special rights and duties of the Aaronic high priest,
particularly the mediatorial function in the offering of
sacrifice; for of Melchisedek tradition relates only
that he blessed Abraham, and received from him the
tithes ; it does not say that he offered sacrifices : it
ascribes to him, that is to say, only those priestly
actions which by the express testimony of history
both David and Solomon performed.
Such in its essential features is the idea of the
Theocratic Kingship. Manifestly it includes such lofty
conceptions and awakens such lofty expectations, that
here also historic reality necessarily lagged far behind
the idea. In the early days of the kingdom under the
house of David, when as yet, for the most part, good
energetic rulers, well disposed to the Theocracy, sat on
the throne (David, Solomon, Asa, Jehoshaphat), general
contentment with the measure in which the idea had
attained realisation was — apart from the disruption of
1 Cp. e.g. 2 Sam. 21. 1 ff., 24. 1 ff, 2 Kings 23. 26 f., 24. 3 f.
2 Cp. e.g. Lev. 10. 6.

120 Messianic Prophecy,
the ten tribes — possible. In this time and even later,
when kings of the like character adorned the throne,
it was possible for poets to refer the contents of the
idea of the Theocratic Kingship to the contemporary
sovereign, and thus always the more fully to unfold
these contents themselves and implant them in the
consciousness of the people. For it is of the very
essence of poetry to transcend the limits of empirical
reality with its imperfections and deficiencies, and so to
regard and present it as it appears to the eye of the
inspired enthusiast — i.e. as penetrated and transfigured
by the light of the idea.1 — It was natural also that, so
long as the .memory of the magnificent period of the
reigns of David and Solomon remained fresh, the eyes
of those who found the contemporary kingship in con
tradiction with their cherished ideal should still turn
to the fair and brilliant days of the past. The farther,
however, these palmy days of the kingdom receded into
the distant past, the more frequently the experience
recurred of a glaring contradiction between reality and
ideal, through the presence on the throne of weak and
unrighteous kings, who were unfaithful to the pure
Jehovah-religion ; and the more psalmody contributed
to present the idea of the Theocratic Kingship in all the
fulness of its wealth and glory,2 the more proportion
ately did this idea inevitably direct the eyes of godly
Israelites to the future — the more, i.e., did it become
certain to them that the true King of the Theocracy
1 Hence the typico-Messianic psalms.
2 Cp. Diestel in loc. cit. pp. 548, 578, 587.

The Origin of Messianic Prophecy. 121
could not belong to the present, with its conditions and
circumstances, at all, but was to be expected only in
the " last days," for then only would the whole King
dom of God attain completion. There grew thus from
the idea of the Theocratic Kingship the prophecy of the
Messianic king, who, owing to the fact that this idea
was in its earliest origin indissolubly associated with
the kingship of the house of David, was designated an
offspring from the stock of David, and was character
ised as the perfect human organ by means of whom the
invisible King conducts the government of His people.
All that is great in the prophecies of Isaiah and Micah
regarding the future Messiah is only the unfolding of
the germs contained in the idea of the Theocratic King
ship ; with these prophets, however, the germs have
already attained their full development, except that the
element of priestly dignity appears in its final definite
ness only in the later conceptions of the Messianic
king.1 We have thus shown that Messianic prophecy is to
be regarded as being in its main features the organic
development of germs which the Old Testament religion
from the first carried in its bosom. The same is true
of the individual Messianic passages. , They contain
no new features which cannot be shown to stand in
some sort of organic or genetic connexion with those
already existing, or which, consequently, the Spirit of
God might not have wrought in the spirit of the
prophet through a normal psychological medium. No-
1 Jer. 30. 21 ; cp. Zech. 3 and 6.

122 Messianic Prophecy.
where do we find anything that is not essentially con
ditioned and determined by an accompanying germina
tion of the Old Testament faith.
We are certain that, in so saying, we do not miss
the truth that a prophecy was never produced by the
will of man, but rather that " holy men spake as they
were moved by the Holy Ghost." 1 The objective reality
of a revelation is not impaired . by the fact that the
revealing operations, of the Divine -Spirit proceed
always within the laws of man's spiritual life ; neither
is it impaired by a candid acknowledgment of the
conditioning and determining influence exercised upon
a prophet's revealed message by the prior elements of
his consciousness. Without the continuous revealing
and enlightening operation of the Spirit of God, the
development of Messianic prophecy from the Old
Testament creed would have been impossible. No
germ becomes a plant apart from the presence of the
outward conditions suitable to its development ; yet
for all that the growth is organic — something proceed
ing from within outwards. So also prophecy does not
grow apart from the revealing activity of the Spirit of
God ; yet its development also is from within outwards
— it starts, i.e., from what is already within the mind
of the prophet. And even if prophecy is, as we affirm,
but an unfolding of germs native to the Old Testament
faith, yet, just because this unfolding is not accomplished
simply by the exercise of the prophet's own under
standing and reason, but by the special revealing
2 Pet. l. 21.

The Origin of Messianic Prophecy. 123
activity of the Spirit of God, the prophetic consciousness
runs, in the process, far in advance of the ordinary
development — through the slow human process of history
— of the religious consciousness of Israel, gives it line and
goal, and thus secures it against the delays resulting from
the errors, stoppages, and retrogressions which are the
invariable accompaniments of a course of historical
development, . Only he who has lost faith in the living
God can suppose that what presents itself to one point
of view as the product of ordinary historical develop
ment cannot be the result of a personal operation of
the transcendent God, Who continuously intervenes
in that ordinary process with imperative and decisive
effect. But he who knows the living God, recognising
always in history the hand of Him Who holds the
reins of Universal Government, will never fail similarly
to recognise in the development of religious truth the
revealing activity of that God Whose light alone can
illumine our darkness.

SECOND PAET.
'THE HISTORICAL CHAKACTEK OF MESSIANIC PKOPHECY :
ITS ADAPTATION TO THE TIMES.
"JI/TESSIANIC prophecy is an essential constituent of
¦*¦'¦*- prophetic discourse. For it was the task of the
prophets to aim steadily at the result of Israel's be
coming more and more- in reality what, by the electing
grace of God, he was ideally and by destination — a
holy and priestly people, the peculiar possession of
Jehovah, occupying a position of substantial communion
with his God. For the fulfilment of this task it was
imperative that the belief in the glorious goal of
Israel's history, established on the one hand by the
unalterable decree of God, and contradicted on the
other by the misery of the present, should be ever and
anon freshly and victoriously reaffirmed, that the con
sciousness of their great destiny might be kept alive
among the people, and developed with increasing
clearness and completeness. Hence none of the pro
phets neglects to point to the end of the ways of God.
Even Amos, for instance, though he appears before the
people chiefly as a preacher of vengeance and as the
herald of a judgment already on the way, must, at least
in the end, hold out to the godly and repentant the
124

The Historical Character of Messianic Prophecy. 125
winning prospect of the salvation of the perfect time.
And so throughout we find in all the prophetic writings
— even the most insignificant — at least something in
the shape of a Messianic oracle.
In its most general and essential features, moreover,
Messianic prophecy is the same at all times and with
all the prophets. God's judgment upon His unfaithful
people, with a view to their chastisement, purification,
and sifting ; the conversion of the people — or at least a
remnant of them — to their God ; judgment upon the
heathen peoples, — into whose power Israel had been
delivered, and who had insolently transgressed the
limits of their commission and sought the total destruc
tion of the kingdom of God ; the redemption of the
people of God ; and, finally, the spiritual salvation and
the external blessing of the accomplished covenant-
communion of Israel with his God, living among His
people and by His kingly government creating right
eousness and peace in His Kingdom, — such are every
where the main features of the picture which the
prophets draw of the historical course of the Kingdom
of God to its goal of perfection. The details of the
picture, however, vary very considerably with the times
and with the prophets. At one time the prominent
feature in the Messianic delineation is external, earthly
prosperity — the power and prestige of' the people of
God, security against enemies, the wonderful fruitful
ness of the holy land, etc.; at another, prominence is
given to spiritual salvation — the forgiveness of sins,
the ethico-religious renewal of the people by the out-

126 The Historical Character of Messianic Prophecy:
pouring of the Spirit of God, the intimate communion
of life and love which every individual will enjoy with
God. In one place the blessing is promised exclusively
— to Israel alone ; in another the promise is universal
— to all peoples. One prophet ascribes the accom
plishment of the salvation of the perfect time solely to
Jehovah Himself, another connects the dawn of the
Messianic time with the appearance of the Messianic
king, while a third represents the true people of God
as the organ used by Him to carry out effectually His
decree of grace. The perfected Kingdom appears now
as one that corresponds with the existing Old Testa
ment economy — it has its central sanctuary in the
temple at Jerusalem, its special priesthood, its ritual of
sacrifice, including even sacrifices of propitiation, etc.;
now it is represented as something very different from
the old rigime, for the special theocratic offices are
declared superfluous, and in consequence the old classi
fication of the people and the old form of worship call
for renewal. — A much larger element of variation in
the form of Messianic prophecy owes its origin, how
ever, to the constant changing of the features borrowed
from contemporary history. In one place, for instance,
it is sufficient that Israel should be secured against
the attacks of neighbouring peoples; in another, the
oppressive yoke of the Assyrians must be shattered;
in yet another, the Chaldean world-empire must be
destroyed, God's people brought back from the land of
captivity to the holy land, and Jerusalem and the
temple rebuilt, that the promised era of salvation may

Its Adaptation to the Times. 127
begin. Indeed, nearly every picture of the Messianic
time has its special colouring, borrowed from content
porary events.
This variety in the shaping of Messianic prophecy
is due in part to the mental peculiarities of individual
prophets, and to their particular religious standpoints ;
in part also it results from the gradual character of
the process by which God's saving purpose is revealed.
But by far the most important reason is to be sought
in the qualifying and determining influence exercised
upon the Messianic oracles of the individual prophet
by the historical conditions and circumstances of the
immediate and ever-varying present.
The first point needs no detailed explanation. No
one will deny that even in the sphere of Messianic
prophecy the differences of individual prophets in
character, gifts, disposition, experience, progressive
development, make themselves felt. These differences,
it will be allowed, affect such points as the tone and
setting of the discourse, the choice of pictures, the
predominance of the verbal or the visionary method of
revelation, the natural simplicity or the richly-signifi
cant play of symbolism that surprises the reader, the
plain, concise presentation of the vision or its artistic
and detailed description, the now larger and the now
lesser width of horizon, and the like. We have, how
ever, spoken of differences in religious standpoint, and
on this one point a word of explanation may be neces
sary to guard ourselves against misapprehension. We
do not, of course, mean any difference- that would com-

128 The Historical Character of Messianic Prophecy :
promise unity of spirit : all the prophets start from
the same fundamental convictions, all have in view
the same goal. We" are surely warranted, however, in
asserting that, quite apart from this spiritual unity
that everywhere attests itself, individual prophets differ
from one another . in the attitude they assume to the
law and the institutions of the Old Testament theo
cracy. All of them, indeed, take up a position that is
neither outside of nor above the law, but in its centre,
for they intrench themselves in its inmost essence -1
but upon this standing-ground common to them all a
difference was nevertheless possible in the value they
might severally assign to what constitutes the circum
ference of the law ; the external precepts could assume
for one a greater, for another a less significance. Thus
frequently — especially 'in the elder prophecy — this
circumference or periphery of the law remains totally
disregarded, and the entire emphasis is laid upon its
ethico-religious kernel. In reading an Amos, Hosea,
Isaiah, or Micah, one might easily suppose that they
would not have conceded any religious importance to
the ceremonial of worship or to any ritual precepts
whatsoever.2 How wholly different, on the other
hand, the attitude of Ezekiel ! Passages such as Ezek.
1 We do not use the word "law" here as synonymous with "law
book" or even with "Pentateuch ;" at least with the older prophets
the law is still essentially a matter of oral traditio'n and announcement.
2 That this, however, is not the case Smend has shown in detail in
his dissertation, Moses apud prophetas (cp. pp. 37 ff., 66 ff), and in
his treatise, "Ueberdie von den Propheten des achten Jahrhunderts
vorausgesetzte Entwickelungsstufe der israelitischen Religion," in
Stud. u. Krit. 1876, 4 flft., esp. pp. 656 ff.

Its Adaptation to tlie Times. 129
4. 14, 22. 26 show the great importance that the
regulations regarding meats and purifications have for
him. And that this is not to be accounted for by the
later date of Ezekiel, but is to be regarded as a result
of his peculiar religious standpoint, is proved by a
glance at his contemporary Jeremiah, who has in
common with him only the emphatic insistance upon
the Sabbatic commandment,1 but in other respects
shares the attitude of the older prophets to the cere
monial precepts. That such a difference of religious
view would necessarily make itself felt in the separate
utterances of Messianic prophecy, must be already
apparent to any one who followed our remarks on the
mode. of revelation to the prophets (pp. 54 ff.). Though
it is true that the eternal thoughts of God, which
attain accomplishment in the New Covenant, nowhere
entirely free themselves from their specific Old Testa
ment investiture, this envelopment will, nevertheless;
as a matter of course, be more observable in the
utterances of those prophets who lay more stress than
others upon the Old Testament precepts and institu
tions. And such is actually the case, e.g., with Ezekiel.
His contemporary Jeremiah may, in the delineation
of the Messianic time, make incidental reference to
temple, priests, and offerings ;2 but his prophecy cul
minates in the assertion that the perfected Kingdom of
God is one in which there shall be no ark, no law
written upon tables of stone, no unapproachable Holy
1 Jer. 17. 19 ff; cp. Ezek. 20. 12 ff., 22. 8.
" Jer. 17. 26, 31. 14, 33. 11, 18. 18 ff.
I

130 The Historical Character of Messianic Prophecy :
of Holies, no difference between priests and laity, be
tween prophets and people — in which, rather, Jehovah's
presence shall pervade the entire City of God, the law
be written upon the hearts of all, and all alike shall
know God, and stand in the same close relation to
Him.1 There is nothing, on the other hand, so char
acteristic of Ezekiel's prophecy as the fact that he
cannot present to himself even the spiritualised reli
gious life of God's people in the perfect time apart
from its embodiment in the conventional forms. The
picture he draws of the perfected Kingdom is substan
tially the picture of the old theocracy ; only, many of
the arrangements of the latter undergo a perfecting
transformation, in describing which Ezekiel deems the
external arrangements and ordinances of the renewed
theocracy of such importance that he details even the
smallest particulars with the utmost minuteness.2 In
chaps. 40—48 we read that in the new temple even
sin-offerings and guilt-offerings are still offered,3 and
that" on the first and seventh days of the first month
there is to be performed an annually recurring atone
ment for the sanctuary ;4 the line of demarcation
between priests and laity is drawn even more straightly
than in the law ;5 the legal definitions as to the holy
and the unholy, the clean and the unclean, remain in
force, and the people are, as formerly, instructed in
them by the priests ;6 circumcision of the heart is
1 Jer. 3. 16 f., 31. 29 ff. " Ezek. chaps. 40-48.
3 Ezek. 40. 39, 42. 13, 44. 29, 46. 20. * Ezek. 45. 18 ff.
5 Ezek. 44. 19. 6 Id. ver. 23.

Its Adaptation to the Times. 131
associated with circumcision of the flesh.1 In short,
the mark of the perfect time is not the abolition of
the old or a total renewal, it is rather such a filling of
the old forms with the spirit, without which they are
dead and worthless, as that the reality or substance
always accompanies the external symbol, and that with
the ceremony there is always associated the disposition
of spirit it is meant to embody. Ezekiel occupies thus
undeniably, even in his Messianic prophesying, the
priestly standpoint much more than Jeremiah ; even
here the great importance of the ceremonial precepts
in his religious consciousness is manifest. Similarly, it
might be shown from other instances how the greater or
less depth of religious life, and the measure of ethico-
religious perception, peculiar to the prophets severally,
exercise a determining influence upon their Messianic
utterances. Compare, e.g., — to put the factors of the
greatest contrast side by side, — the prophecies of the
second half of Isaiah with those of a Haggai or a Malachi !
As to the second ground of variety in the form of
Messianic prophecy, viz. the gradually progressive
nature of the revelation of God's saving purpose to the
prophets, the minute treatment of it belongs properly
to a history of the development of revelation. Such
a history has to show how the true character of the
perfected Theocracy, and the ways and means of its
accomplishment, come to be recognised by the prophets
with ever-increasing clearness and completeness. Such
a presentation of the historical development of pro-
1 Ezek. 44. 9.

132 The Historical Character of Messianic Prophecy :
phecy we do not here contemplate,1 and we annex the
remarks it may be suitable for us to make in this
connexion to our illustration of the third point, viz.
the qualifying and determining influence which the
historical conditions and circumstances of the immedi
ate and ever-varying present exercise upon the content
of Messianic prophecy. We mean that the progressive
development of Messianic prophecy stands in a genetic
and teleological connexion with the historical course
of the Old Testament theocracy — a genetic connexion
because of the influence, just referred to, which varying
historical circumstances exercise upon it ; a teleological,
because history, like prophecy, is designed to be a
preparation and education of Israel for the fulfilment
of his calling, and for the reception of the Messianic
salvation ; hence history and prophecy must, if they
are to cooperate towards the attainment of their com
mon goal, in their course of development run parallel
and keep step with' each other. The proof of the influ
ence exercised upon Messianic prophecy by changing
historical circumstances will thus of necessity contain
many indicative allusions to the gradually progressive
character of the knowledge of God's saving purpose.
Accordingly we take for the subject of our investiga
tion in this Second Part, The Historical Character of
Messianic Prophecy : its Adaptation to the Times? In
1 An attempt in this direction, in many respects successful, is to be
found in' the second principal part of the work of von Oeelli cited
above ; cp.; nevertheless, Stud. u. Krit. 1883, pp. 812 ff.
2 [The German is simply Der zeitgeschichtliche Charakter der mes-
sianischen Weissagung. Our historical can hardly be accepted 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 Bertheau,1
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 wliich 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. — Te.]
1 Cp. Bebtheait, "Die alttestamentliche Weissagung von Israels
Reichsherrlichkeit in seinem Land," 2nd and 3rd parts, in the Jahr
biichern fur deutsche Theologie, vol. iv. pp. 595 ff., and vol. v. pp.
486 ff.

134 The Historical Character of Messianic Prophecy: .
events, the prophet keeps always in view the conditions
and circumstances of the actual present. From them
he starts, and in relation to them his prophecy has a
definite aim. These propositions are not contradicted
by the fact that it is frequently represented as the
purpose of a prophetic utterance, particularly of its
committal to writing, that it should be acknow
ledged at the 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—66,
as well as in scattered references elsewhere.1 It goes
without saying that a prophecy which 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 expressly,
for the- benefit of a more receptive posterity, the word
of God that can find no entrance into present ears.
But 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.-r-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
1 Cp. e.g. Isa. 8. 1 ff., 30. 8 ff., 34. 16, Hab. 2. 2 f.

Its Adaptation to the Times. 135
to the 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 was necessary for Messianic prophecy to place
itself invariably in intimate relationship with the precise
ethico-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

136 The Historical Character of Messianic Prophecy :
him, to sketch a new picture of the perfect time,
adopting only those individual features of the 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 hope, 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 Adaptation to the Times. 137
To make this position at once clearer and more
secure, we must form a distinct idea of the limits which
bounded the outlook of the prophets towards 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 Book of Jeremiah and of the whole of Ezekiel;
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 laws 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 Prophecy :
cedent, in order to justify the ascription of Isa. 40—66
to Isaiah, or of the Apocalypse of Daniel to a prophet
living in the Exile ? 1 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 kind 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
prophecies has taught us.2
1 Cp. e.g. Delitzsch's closing remarks on Part iii. of Dkechsler's
Kommentar zu Jesaias, p. 391 : " But such a complete naturalisation
in the distant future, sustained throughout twenty-seven discourses,
as we should have to assume in the case of chaps. 40-66, is surely, in the
complete absence of a precedent, surprising." Cp. in addition, p. 389.
2 It was gratifying to me to find even Konig in complete agree
ment with me on this point, as in general in the recognition of
the limits to the prophets' vision of the future ; cp, in loc. cit. ii. pp.
307 ff. In accordance with his fundamental view of prophecy he natur
ally proceeds to find the reason of these limits retaining their validity,
even in the case of those utterances expressly designated as the speech
of Jehovah, in the will of God to accommodate Himself to the histo
rical horizon of the prophets and their hearers.

Its Adaptation to the Times. 139
What are these limits and laws ? In the content
of the prophetic vision of the future we have to
distinguish two different elements. The one is of a
more ideal and general nature, the other is more concrete
and historical. The germs from which the prophetic
cognitions that go to make up the former have grown,
are partly the fundamental ideas 'of the Old Testament
religion present to the prophetic consciousness, partly
also the preception of certain general circumstances
that remain the same in all times. Those prophetic
cognitions, on the other hand, which constitute the
other element in the prophetic vision of the future,
root besides in the acquaintance of the prophet with
the special historical conditions and circumstances of
the actual present.
From the law of Jehovah received by tradition, and
from revelations to previous prophets, every prophet
knows the unalterable purpose of Jehovah to preserve
His Kingdom, founded upon earth, by the exhibition
of His judicial punitive justice upon God-forsaken
evil-doers, of His grace and faithfulness towards the
godly or repentant, and of His almighty power and
holy majesty against heathen peoples, who seek to
frustrate His gracious designs, and to conduct it to its
goal of perfection by acts of judgment and grace,
which bring salvation to Israel and blessing to all
peoples. Hence : every prophet's vision of the future
reaches to the end of the ways of God. The ultimate
goal of the history of the Kingdom of God is not indeed
present to the vision of them all with the same clearness

140 The Historical Character of Messianic Prophecy :
and completeness. In the delineation of it there emerge
significant differences in the degree of religious per~
ception. But the prospect itself of the complete
accomplishment of Jehovah's purpose of grace is not
absent from any of the prophets. The prophecy of
this goal of perfection develops itself in a special
degree from those ideas explained in the First Part
which are implied in the very fact of the Old Testament
religion and theocracy. Of substantially similar
nature is the announcement, to be found in many of
the prophets, of a final conflict between universal
heathendom and the Kingdom of God, which will
immediately precede the last time, and will end in the
complete and for ever decisive victory of the latter,
and with a judgment upon assailants of the Kingdom,
such as will annihilate the power of the heathen. We
find such announcements — developed under various
forms — first in Joel 3. 9 ff, then in Micah 4. 11-13
and 5. 4 f., further in Zech. 12. 1 ff, and 14. 3 ff. 12 ff,
in greatest detail in Ezek. chaps. 38 and 39, finally
also in Deutero-Isaiah 66. 18 ff. Even these prophecies
— if we except minute details^owe no special debt to
the circumstances of the times in which they were
uttered ; apart from the idea of the Theocracy itself,
their native soil is simply the conception of the relation
of hostility — the same for all ages — between corporate
heathendom and the Kingdom of God, and the historical
experience that, just because of this hostile attitude
which the kingdoms of the world, on the one hand, and
the Kingdom of God on the other, owe it to their

Its Adaptation to the Times. 141
essential mutual differences to assume to each other,
the course of the Theocracy lies through hard conflicts
to ultimate victory and peace.
As to the other — or concrete historical — element in
the prophecies relating to the future, it has been
rightly observed : " Prophecy does not derive its
knowledge of the future from the content of the
historical present, but from the counsel of God, who
overrules history, making even apparently opposing
facts subservient to His ends." x But how is this
derivation from the counsel of God effected ? Only
through the Spirit of God assuring the prophet that
in accordance with the laws of Divine universal govern
ment future history must and will shape itself out of
the conditions and circumstances of the present as known
to him, in order that the counsel of God, which in its
fundamental features is also known to him, may attain
fulfilment. 2 Hence, as we see invariably, prophecy
applies to the present and to the immediate future the
same fundamental laws of God's government of the
world and His own Kingdom, under whose light
prophetic historical narrative views .the past ; here as
there, there is the same prophetico-theocratic pragmatism
governing, in the one case, the representation of what
has happened, and, in the other, the consideration of
the actual present and what is to result from it. It is
only in regard to the prospect of those historical
1 Cp. Oehlek, art. "Weissagung" in Herzog's Realencyklopadie,
xvii. p. 652.
2 Cp. Ewald, Die Lehre der Bibel von Gott, iii. pp. 204 ff. and
i. pp. 88 ff.

142 The Historical Character of Messianic Prophecy:
particulars, which stand in some sort of immediate
connexion with the circumstances of the present, that
the Spirit of God can assure the prophet ; He cannot
certify him of those which have no such connexion,
for the entire consciousness of the prophet offers not a
single point at which such unrelated knowledge could
originate. This limitation results from the law of a
revelation which refuses to be magical — a law which
the Divine Eevealer has imposed upon Himself, not
one by which we seek to bind Him. In virtue of this
law, every prophet has a definite historical horizon which
limits his view of the future. The limit may be a
narrower or a wider one ; but it never reaches further
than the point to which the present — viewed in the light
of the Divine purpose — carries the future in its bosom. —
Within this times -horizon, -the certainty which the
prophet owes to the Spirit of God in regard to what
is contained in the counsel of God may be a perfectly
clear and definite foreknowledge of individual historical
facts, which prophecy announces quite definitely and
unconditionally. Thus, e.g., Micaiah, son of Imlah,
prophesies with perfect definiteness that Ahab and
Jehoshaphat will be defeated by the Aramaeans, volun
tarily submitting to imprisonment and offering to be
treated as a false prophet should his word not be
fulfilled.1 Amos announces similarly the impending
destruction of the kingdom of Damascus, and the
carrying away of the Aramaeans to their original seat
in Kir.2 Isaiah is perfectly certain that kings Eezin
1 1 Kings 22. 17 ff. 2 Amos 1. 3 ff. ; cp. 2 Kings 16. 9.

Its Adaptation to the Times. 143
and Pekah will not succeed in capturing Jerusalem, and
that in less than three years their countries will be
devastated by the Assyrian armies,1 but that Judah
also will be hard pressed by the Assyrians, from whom
Ahaz expects his help.2 Similarly he announces the
deliverance of Jerusalem from the army of Sennacherib,
the annihilation of the latter by the immediate inter
vention of Jehovah, and the hasty flight of Sennacherib
into his own land.3 Jeremiah, on the other hand,
announces that God has irrevocably decreed the destruc
tion of Jerusalem and the downfall of the Jewish State
through " His servant " Nebuchadnezzar ; in the same
manner he prophesies, however, also the judgment that
^sa. 7. 7. 16, 8. 4.
2 Isa. 7. 18 ff., 8. 5 ff. The comparison of the two last-cited passages
affords an instructive proof of how the prophets, with the view of impart
ing an air of life and forceful reality to their threats and promises, as well
as of making them more tangible for the people, frequently depict the
details of an impending judgment or deliverance of Jehovah without
themselves attaching any particular importance to the individual
features of their delineation, or intending to make the truth of their
prophecies depend upon their actual occurrence. Hence they do not
hesitate in the reproduction of a prophecy to alter this or that
individual feature of the picture. Thus in Isa. 7. 18 ff.,the prophet
represents the devastation of Judaea as brought about by the mutual
encounter of an Assyrian and an Egyptian army — a view of things
which undoubtedly presupposes that the latter will march to Judaea,
in order to set bounds to the advance of Assyrian dominion ; in the
reproduction, however, of the prophecy, 8. 5 ff., about a year and a
half later, he mentions only the Assyrians as the instrument of the
Divine judgment.
3 Cp. esp. Isa. 10. 33 f., 14. 24 ff., 29. 7 f., 30. 27 ff, 31. 5. 8 f., 37.
33 ff. The two passages Isa. 30. 33 and 31. 8 f. form another locus in
proof of our remark in the note above. In the former the prophet
assumes that Sennacherib himself will fall with his army ; in the
reproduction of the prophecy he says only that the king will fall back
in terror-stricken flight (cp. also 37. 34).

144 The Historical Character of Messianic Prophecy :
will overtake Babylon about seventy years later, and
the consequent deliverance and return of the exiles ;
and the same prophet warns the false prophet
Hananiah, that he will die that very year.1 The
fulfilment or non-fulfilment of such definite prophecies
—be they prophecies of salvation or of disaster — is the
authorised criterion of the genuine or the false prophet.2
All historical facts, preannounced in these and similar
prophecies, lie within the times- horizon of the par
ticular prophet ; and the foreknowledge of them is to
be judged of psychologically according to the remarks
made at pp. 49 ff. — Of the further course of future
history, on the other hand, which stands in no immediate
relation to the present, so far as the latter is known to
the prophet, prophecy derives no knowledge from the
counsel of God. Fresh periods of development in the
history of the Theocracy, starting under totally different
conditions and circumstances, as well as also the indi
vidual events that belong to them, are veiled even to the
prophet in the mystery of the Divine counsel. Hence
it is always but the next piece of the historical road along
which God will lead His people — that, viz., which lies
between the present and the next epoch, which makes
1 Jer. 28. 16.
2 Deut. 18. 22, Jer. 28. 8 f. Cp- H. Schdltz in loc. cit. ii. pp. 57 f. ;
in the 2nd ed. pp. 242 f. Bertheau (Jahrbb. f. D. Th. iv. p. 352)
wrongly limits Deut. 18. 22, which manifestly refers to all definite
prophecies of the near future, to prophecies of salvation. The fact that
false prophecies were for the most part prophecies of salvation, does not
justify this arbitrary limitation of the natural meaning of the text, and
passages like 1 Kings 22. 8, Micah 3. 5, and Ezek. 13. 22, show that
the law must have been applicable to false prophecies of disaster as well.

Its Adaptation to the Times. 145
a' turning-point in the history of the Theocracy — that
the enlightened eye of the prophet can survey with
more or less distinctness.
This piece of road, however, he recognises as con
ducting to the goal which God's decree of grace has
set for itself; for those ideal cognitions of future
history already referred to may be compared, as
regards their relation to that portion of the concrete
historical progress of the Kingdom of God which is
actually within the prophet's view, to the sky which
bounds the portion of country, the view of which is
commanded by some lofty watch-tower. The goal of
perfection lies, indeed, as we have seen, open to the
vision of every prophet who looks into the future.
There lie beyond his horizon only those stages in the
historical development of the Kingdom which may inter
vene before the course towards the goal of perfection,
conceived as starting from the point which bounds the
prophet's prospect, is completed. Here, therefore, we
mark the first limit of the prophetic prospect. We are
fully persuaded that every exegete who is accustomed
to interpret prophecy, not according to its actual or
supposed fulfilment, but first and foremost according
to the sense which the prophet himself attached to his
words, will obtain from an examination of the admit
tedly genuine prophecies precisely the result we have
just indicated. What might be inferred a priori proves
itself thus in entire accordance with the actual facts.1
1 That even the prophecy Micah 4. 10 is not entitled to the claim
that has been made for it, as supplying the most decisive argument
K

146 The Historical Character of Messianic Prophecy:
On the second limit to the prophet's view of the
future we may be brief. It is generally admitted.
It lies in the fact that the time and hour of the
against our view (Hesgstenbekg, Christologie, 2nd ed. i. p. 541),
can easily be proved, and has been in the main acknowledged even
by Caspabi in his, in many respects, excellent work, Ueber Micha
den Morasthiten, Christiania 1851, pp. 172 ff. For Micah does not
refer to the captivity of the Jews by the Chaldeans, which happened
about 130 years after the date of his prophecy, but to a deporta
tion of them to Babylon by the Assyrians. This is proved, first, by
the general fact that he nowhere speaks of the Chaldeans, but
always rather regards the Assyrians as the instrument of the divine
judgment. Even in the Messianic time Assyria is the world-power
which has to be overthrown (Micah 5. 4 f. ). Secondly, the first half of
4. 10 corresponds manifestly, as regards date, with 3. 12.- And in
Jer. 26. 18 f. it is expressly said that this threat was not fulfilled,
because Jehovah repented of the evil He had designed in view of the
conversion of Hezekiah and the people. We are therefore by no
means warranted in recognising in the captivity by the Chaldeans,
a, fulfilment of this threat in its concrete historical interpretation, but
must, according to Jer. 26, refer Micah's prophecy to a judgment
which was averted in the time of Hezekiah, — a judgment of which
the agents could have been only the Assyrians. Hengstenbeeg's
objections to this interpretation are simply unscriptural (in loc. cit.
p. 540). — Micah could well, moreover, prophesy a captive transporta
tion to Babylon by the Assyrians. For Babylon belonged at this
time (the time of Hezekiah) to the Assyrians. As early as the first
year of his reign (745) Tiglath-Peleser had overthrown Babylon, bearing
in consequence the title: "King of Sumir and Akkad," i.e. of
Babylonia, and later (731) he confirmed, the Assyrian supremacy by a
second campaign (cp. Scheadee, Die Keilinschriften und das Alte
Testament, pp. 128 ff. ; 2nd ed. pp. 231 ff., 249, 259). The Baby
lonians, however, constantly endeavoured to regain their independence ;
the king of South Babylonia, Merodach Baladan I., in particular made
repeatedly vigorous attempts to throw off the Assyrian yoke. In conse
quence of this Sargon afterwards undertook an expedition into Baby
lonia in the first year of his reign (721 ), and, after conquering Merodach
Baladan, transported some of the Babylonians to Syria (Schbadee
in he. cit. pp. 162 ff., 264 ; 2nd ed. pp. 276 ff., 403 ; cp. 2 Kings 17.
24). — If Micah's prophecy belongs to a date subsequent to this event,
the historical circumstances were peculiarly favourable to the idea of
a deportation to Babylonia; but even if the prophecy should be

Its Adaptation to the Times. 147
perfect accomplishment of God's saving purpose remain
concealed from the prophets, as they are indeed even
from the apostles and the Son Himself, seeing they
assigned a somewhat earlier date, the glance of the prophet might —
in view of the known policy of the Assyrians of securing conquered
territories by the method of transplanting populations — easily have
been directed to Babylonia, which was in special need of such a
security. Furthermore, Micah's contemporary, Isaiah, in a later
utterance threatened the steward Shebna with transportation to
Mesopotamia or Babylonia at the hand of the Assyrians, for one or
other of these districts must be intended in the " land that is broad
on both sides " (Isa. 22. 18) ; and even Sennacherib entertains the idea
of a deportation to one of them (Isa. 36. 17). But in addition to that
derived from the historical circumstances, Micah was influenced
further by a motive derived from his typico-prophetic way of looking
at history. - He is fond of setting future events in parallelism with
the record of former times (cp. 4. 8, 5. 2). Assyria is in his eyes the
land of Nimrod (5. 6), and the first capital of Nimrod's dominion was
Babel, Gen. 10. 10. There, in the first seat of a world-power, the
distress of the people of God is to reach its extremity ; there also,
however, will be their triumph over the world-power. — It may be
said, indeed, that Micah's prophecy was fulfilled in the destruction of
Jerusalem and the captivity under the Chaldeans, inasmuch as these
events revealed for the first time with distinctness the Divine purpose,
that the way to the goal of perfection should lie through a cata
strophe which involved the complete shattering of the theocracy in
the external form in which it existed at that time. We 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 historical interpretation — was not fulfilled. He did not
foretell the future historical fact of the Chaldean captivity 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
dictum of Stade, that Micah 4. 10 "is at all events a valicinium ex
eventu" (Zeitschrift fur die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft, 1881, p.
167), nor with Nowaok's assumption, that at least the words ubhd'th
adh-Bdbhil (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 th-e Assyrian period " cannot be reasonably

148 The Historical Character of Messianic Prophecy:
are known only to the Father.1 It belongs, however,
to the nature of all living hope to bring the expected
boon as near as possible to the present time, and this
is specially true of a hope that springs from a faith
in the almighty God, Who 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,2 which in fact they
themselves hoped to survive, so all the prophets expected
the speedy initiation of the Messianic time. The 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
times-horizon that bounded their prospect. It is this
circumstance, and not the visionary character of the
revelations made to the prophets, which serves to
explain why the salvation of the Messianic time is
always the bright background of the picture in which
they represent the immediately impending 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 impending future
of the Kingdom of God and its final goal, but connects
them organically with each other, and combines them
affirmed in view of the passages cited above from Isaiah. The latest
criticism is in general far too ready to assume "contradictions," and
in relation to Micah, in particular, the apparent contradiction of Micah
3. 12 with a whole series of Isaiah's prophecies, ought to warn against
such hasty assumptions.
1 Matt. 24. 36, Mark 13. 32, Acts 1. 7.
2 1 Cor. 15. 51 f., 1 Thess. 4. 16 f.

Its Adaptation to the Times. 149
in a single view. Even though the prophet is
conscious that he cannot accurately fix the time for
the commencement of the Messianic era, — and except
in the Book of Daniel we nowhere find exact indi
cations of date,1 — yet he sets the conditions and
circumstances of the present and of the nearest future,
that shapes itself from them, in immediate relation to
the goal of history, recognising that the ways along
which God is actually accompanying His people
assuredly conduct to it. And, if his hope presents"
this goal to him as near, why should he not in his
delineation of it encroach upon this present ? 3 He
necessarily looks at the present and the immediate
future in the light that is reflected from the end of the
ways of God, for in this light alone are the riddles
solved which are involved in the history of his time.
He knows, however, the obstacles which present
conditions and circumstances oppose to the attainment
of the goal, and the state of contradiction into which
judgments that are either impending or are already
taking effect will throw, or are actually throwing, the
position of the people of God and their relation to
heathen peoples with the position and attitude which
are designed for them in the counsel of God, and
which they will be permitted to enjoy in security
1 An exact indication of the time when the Messias should be born
can be found in Isa. 7. 14 ff. only on the supposition that the prophet
really intends Immanuel as the Messias. But we cannot consider this
hypothesis correct. No argument in this connexion can be founded
on the Book of Daniel, which is a late aftergrowth of the elder type of
prophecy. ' 2 Vergegenwartigt. 3 See Appendix A, Note VI.

150 The Historical Character of Messianic Prophecy :
after the attainment of the goal. The removal of
these obstacles and the setting aside of this contradic
tion must therefore form a part of his Messianic
prophecy, if the latter is put into his heart and mouth
by the Spirit of God only as psychologically mediated,
and standing in genetic connexion with the cognitions,
conceptions, and ideas which constitute the stock-
furniture of his mind. Thus without any conscious
intention on his part, and following solely an inward
compulsion, the prophet always gives in greater or
iess degree a times-colouring to his delineation of the
perfect time, and the final deeds of Divine power
which bring it about. For not only does he himself
look at the historical present in the light of the
perfect time, but also vice versa he sees the brightness
of the latter only in the broken coloured light in
which the atmosphere of the historical present suffers
it to appear. Hence it is that we read in the
Messianic prophecies of the reunion of the kingdom of
the Ten Tribes with the kingdom of Judah, of the
restoration of the royal, house of David to its former
power, of the overthrow of the Edomites, Moabites,
Ammonites, and Philistines, of. the crushing of the
oppressive yoke of Assyria, and the like. — It need
hardly be said that in such concrete times-coloured
features we cannot, with Hengstenberg, see mere
pictures, borrowed from the circumstances in which
the prophets lived, in order to give a comprehensible
idea of the character of the Kingdom of Christ.1 — In
1 Cp. Hengstenberg's Christologie, 2nd ed. iii. 2, pp. 194 ff.

Its Adaptation to the Times. 151
so far, at least, as the sense attached to their utter
ances by the prophets themselves is concerned, the
fact that they speak of the Messias as a king resident
on Mount Zion, is not to be set to the mere account
of their pictorial style. If they say that in the
perfect time Israel will no more seek help from
Assyria or Egypt, they do not mean to represent
merely Israel's faithfulness to his God under the
pictorial form of a particular arbitrarily-chosen instance.
The cessation of the dualism between the kingdom of
Judah and that of the Ten Tribes is not to them
merely a symbolic expression of the idea that peace
and love will reign among the people of God. And
when in their Messianic outlooks they speak of the
overthrow of the Edomites, Moabites, etc., or of a
judgment upon Assyria, Babylon, etc., neither is the
overthrow to be at once translated into its spiritual
meaning, nor are the peoples mentioned merely typical
representatives of the world - power that stands
opposed to the Kingdom of God. To the prophets
themselves, and to those to whom their message in
the first instance came, all such times - borrowed
features in their prophecies have a much more
substantial and immediately practical meaning. Not
something which they figuratively represent, but what
they actually say, in the simple meaning of their
words, is in the eyes of the prophets and their
contemporaries imperative v to Israel's participation in
his destined salvation and glory ; and it is precisely
these times - borrowed features that contribute very

152 The Historical Character of Messianic Prophecy :
largely to the fitness of prophecy to fulfil its im
mediate destination, as described above (pp. 133 ff.).
The spiritualising evaporation of the entire concrete
matter of Messianic prophecy is the just consequence
of Hengstenbeeg's 1 failure to fulfil the first duty of an
exegete, that, viz., of placing himself on the standpoint
of the Old Testament, and in particular of the several
prophets, so as to judge of the sense which they
themselves attached to their words.
The expectation that the " end of days " is near,
occasions, however, not merely the adoption into the
picture of the Messianic time of features borrowed from
the times ; it involves, further, the frequent glorification
of the immediate future in the light of the end of the
ways of God. An immediately impending judgment
is not* unfrequently portrayed as if it were to be the
final judgment of the world. This happens especially
when the prophecy is still of a somewhat indefinite
1 To do justice, however, to Hengstenbeeg's view of the times-
borrowed features of Messianic prophecy, we must not forget that his
main concern is always to elucidate the sense wliich God intended in
the prophetic utterances, and not that which the prophets themselves
attached to them (cp. the expression of his meaning, cited p. 6). Hence
his conception has, as we shall see, a certain relative value in cases where
the interest of the inquiry does not turn on what he calls " the constitu
tion of the prophecy " (die Beschaffenheit der Weissagung), but upon the
exact determination of its ultimate aim, as judged by the fulfilment.
It were to be wished only that he had himself remained true to his
postulate that this twofold sense was " to be accurately distinguished,"
and that he had not so misjudged the historical sense of prophecy ! As
against his spiritualising exegesis, cp. Delitzsch, Die biblisch-pro-
phetische Theologie, ihre Portbildung durch Chr. A. Crusius und ihre
neueste Entwickelung seit der Christologie Hengstenbergs, Leipzig 1845,
pp. 167 ff. ; Oehler in loc. cit. pp. 649 f. ; and Beetheau in the
Jahrbb. f. D. Theol. iv. pp. 622 and 626.

Its Adaptation to the Times. 153
nature ; whereas, so soon as the prophet is able to
announce definitely the precise mode in which the
judgment will take effect, the ideal features, represent
ing the picture of the last great catastrophe, became
less prominent in his utterances. An instructive locus
on this point is the powerful delineation of the im
pending day of judgment (Isa. 2), in which every high
thing shall be brought low, and Jehovah alone shall
maintain His transcendence above a finally-demolished
idolatry, as compared with the more definite announce
ment in Isa. 5. 25 ff., that the impending judgment will
be effected in two acts, and that the Assyrian army
will be the executor of the second act. In the same
way near-expected times of salvation and grace are fre
quently so portrayed that their commencement appears
entirely coincident with that of the perfect time.
We cannot pause here to prove in detail how the
Messianic messages of the prophets, whose delivery
was spread over the course of centuries, attest the fore
going expositions. While referring the reader on this
point to the discussions of Bertheau, of which we have
made frequent mention, we are content at present to
adduce some loci, for the purpose rather of illustrating
than of fundamentally establishing what has been said.
In the case of the oldest prophets whose utterances
are preserved to us — viz. Joel, Amos, and Hosea —
the times-horizon of their outlook to the future reaches
only to the turning - point in the history of the
Theocracy, that began with the intervention in the
fortunes of Israel of the world-power of Assyria ; and

154 The Historical Character of Messianic Prophecy:'
immediately behind this lies the Messianic time. Al
though these prophets clearly recognise that much
must be altered in the people and kingdom of God before
the final goal is reached, yet, according to their pro
phecy, the history of the Theocracy comes somewhat
rapidly to its end, and its course is a very simple one.
With Joel (between 830 and 810) it is entirely that
of a straight line. In the astoundingly terrible plague
of locusts and the long-continued dearth, which in his
time desolated the land and caused a severe famine, he
saw an immediate indication of the nearness of the day
of judgment — even the beginning of the final judgment
itself.1 But when the people respond obediently to
his call to repentance, he does not hold out any fresh
threats of Divine judgment against Judah and Jeru
salem. . On the contrary, after the deliverance from the
present extremity there follow, without further inter
vening catastrophes,2 the Divine deeds through which
Jehovah's purpose of grace attains fulfilment — the
reunion with the people of God of the Judaeans and
inhabitants of Jerusalem, who had been held captive
by the distant sons of Javan ; the universal outpouring
of the Spirit ; and the judgment of annihilation upon
the heathen peoples assembled for the final conflict
1 Joel 1. 15, 2. 1 f. 11. Just here lies a moment in the proof of
the high antiquity of the prophecy of Joel, to which sufficient atten
tion has not yet been paid. The dates incidentally given in the text
are justified in the art. " Zeitrechnung " in my Bibelworterbuch.
2 The 'achdre-khen (after this) of Joel 2. 28 is, of course, an indefinite
expression ; but, considering the prophet's view, as explained above,
of the present extremity, we are certainly not justified in regarding it
as meaning for him a prolonged interval.

Its Adaptation to the Times. 155
with the Kingdom of God, through which. Israel is for
ever secured against their assaults. Had Joel not left
the kingdom of the Ten Tribes entirely out of account,
he would, of course, hardly have represented the way
to the ultimate goal as so evenly paved. Amos (circa
760) and his younger contemporary Hosea, whose
mission concerns principally the kingdom of the Ten
Tribes, see already somewhat more of what the imme
diate future conceals in its bosom for Israel. Not
simply for the heathen, but for the people of God
themselves, there is imminent a severe catastrophe of
judgment. It concerns chiefly the kingdom of the Ten
Tribes, which will be wholly uprooted, whose inhabit
ants — as many of them as have not fallen victims
to death — will be scattered among the nations. Thus
will God's judgment remove the evil of a divided
kingdom. Only the, comparatively speaking, less
guilty kingdom of the royal house of David, to whom
God's promise is given, will continue its existence. Yet
Judah also is struck by the terrible judgment,1 for it
is intended in general to extirpate all evil-doers from
among the people of God.2 These prophets also fore
see that the judgment will be effected by a people who
have but lately appeared on the scene of history, and
who come from the far North. But this marks the
limit of their prospect. This new people have but
entered within their horizon, and are still half in the
dark. By Amos, and in the earlier prophecies of
J Amos 2. 5, 6. 1, Hos. 5. 10. 12 ff., 6. 4, 8. 14, 10. 11, 12. 2.
2 Amos 9. 10.

156 The Historical CJiaracter of Messianic Prophecy :
Hosea (chaps. 1-3), they are not mentioned by name ;
only in his later prophecies (chaps. 4—14) Hosea points
to the Assyrian as the prinqipal instrument of the
avenging judgment, and to Assyria as the land of exile.
But even there it remains obscure how God will again
deliver His people from the power of this mighty
enemy. Similarly, neither of them knows anything
either of a judgment threatening Assyria or of the
impending downfall of the kingdom of Judah. Deeply
as the latter will be humbled by the judgment, it will
yet not sink under the weight of it, like the kingdom
of the Ten Tribes.1 On the contrary, so soon as the
double object of the judgment is accomplished upon
the people of God, — the restoration, viz., of the unity
of the kingdom by the destruction of the specially
guilty kingdom, and the extirpation of evil-doers from
the community, or, otherwise, the conversion of the
remnant of the people, — the time of the Messianic
salvation is just about to commence, in which Jehovah
restores the fallen Davidic kingdom in its former bril
liancy and power, and makes the kingdom united and
great as of yore. The people of God will then, how
ever, participate in all the external blessings and
spiritual gifts which are implied in the completeness
of their fellowship with God. — The immediate relation
in which the Messianic oracles of these oldest prophets
stand to the historical circumstances of their time must
be at once apparent to every one. Joel begins with
1 The destruction of the kingdom is not to be read into the refrain
like announcement Amos 2. 5,. repeated almost verbally in Hos. 8. 14.

Its Adaptation to the Times. 157
the comforting promise that Jehovah will completely
deliver the repentant people from the present extremity,
destroy the locust-armj', send henceforward abundant
and timely rain, and bless the land with wonderful
fruitfulness ; x and towards the end also 2 the prophet
comes back to this just then peculiarly comforting and
attractive promise. Because, further, the kingdom of
Judah had, since Eehoboam's time, to suffer much from
the attacks of hostile neighbours, first from the
Egyptians ; 3 then from the Edomites, who had invaded
the land and butchered defenceless inhabitants ; 4 re
cently, however, and specially, from the Philistines,6
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 takes the form of a promise
of deliverance and return to the captives,6 and , of
security to the kingdom and its capital against the
attacks of neighbouring peoples. Add to which that
1 Joel 2. 18-27. 2 Joel 3. 18. 3 1 Kings 14. 25 f.
1 Joel 3. 19. The suffix in Vartsdm, (in their land) is not, as has
been assumed from 2 Kings 8. 20, to be referred to the Edomites. It
has rather to be connected with 'dshtr, and to be referred to bfine
ytfmdhdh: "in whose land they have shed innocent blood." Cp. on
the order of the words, Isa. 7. 16. Sightly: Ceedner and Wunsohe
in loco.
6 Joel 3. 1-18, % Chron. 21. 16 f., 22. 1 Am. 1. 6 and 9.
6 Joel 3. 1. 7.

158 Tlie Historical Character of Messianic Prophecy :
his whole announcement of the straight course of
the history of the Kingdom of God to its goal is
throughout conditioned by, the fact that he cannot
charge the people of the kingdom of Judah 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 latte/s testimony — that, viz., of the wonderful
fertility of the holy land — that he reproduces substan
tially unaltered.1 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;2 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.3 But in spite of all this
times - colouring, the oracles of these oldest prophets
really present to us the end of ihe ways of God ; we
need think only of Joel's prophecy 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. 2 Amos 9. 12. 3 Hos. 14. 3.

Its Adaptation to the Times. 159
which, in the last days, Jehovah will enter with the
people of His possession.1
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.2 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.8 And even Isaiah prophesied the same
extreme disaster, not merely in the time of Ahaz,4 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.5 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
1 Hos. 2. 20 ff., 14. 4 ff.
2 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.
4 Isa. 7. 17 ff. ; cp. 28. 14 ff.
5 Isa. 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.1 — 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 their time, their foresight of the
future is in this respect superior to that of their
predecessors,2 that they see clearly and definitely,
behind the judgment of Jehovah upon the kingdom
of Judah, the judgment of almighty vengeance 3 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 become clear
how serious an obstacle the Assyrian supremacy, with
its high - flown schemes of conquest and its openly-
announced 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. Nothing 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 ff. ; cp. 10. 32 ff, 14. 24 ff, 17. 12 ff, 18. 4 ff, 29.
5 ff, 30. 27 ff., 31. 5. 8 f.
2 With the sole exception of the author of Zech., chaps. 9-11, who
had given a brief indication of an impending humiliation of Assyria
(Zech. 10. 11). 3 Das gewaltige Strafgericht.

Its Adaptation to the Times. 161
of the people of God from the Assyrian tyranny.
All the judicial ends of God are attained in the
immediately impending judgments.1 Hence Israel's
deliverance from the yoke of Assyria is the beginning
of a series of Divine deeds of grace, by which Israel
is inwardly and outwardly prepared for, and made to
participate in, the salvation destined for him.2 Nothing
is said of fresh intervening catastrophes. The triumph
of the theocracy over the Assyrian supremacy lies on
the border of Isaiah's times - horizon, and he sees it
transfigured and glorified by the dawn -light of the
Messianic salvation. Even though he for once, as in
the first half of the eleventh chapter, draws an entirely
ideal picture of the perfected Kingdom, yet he does
not cease, in the details of the sequel, to give special
prominence to the great deed of deliverance, that falls
within his horizon, as the basis and beginning of God's
final deeds of salvation. This is seen in the fact that
the latter half of this chapter, in strange contrast with
the former half, is coloured by references of the most
pointed and unmistakable kind to contemporary
events and politics to a degree not surpassed by any
of the other Messianic utterances of Isaiah. And to
how great an extent the prophet regards the Messianic
prospect as one that had already drawn near, he him
self expressly tells us ; 3 and it is indeed already
apparent in the fact that from the moment the host
1 Isa. 10. 12.
2 Cp. Isa. 9. 1 ff., 11. 11 ff, 30. 19 ff., 31. 7 ff., 33. 17 ff.
3 Isa. 29. 17. L

162 The Historical Character of Messianic Prophecy :
of Sennacherib was stirred against the kingdom and
city of God, the prophet necessarily expected the
principal act of the judgment upon the Assyrians to
take place in the nearest future. — Only when he has
seen reason to represent the judgment as one that had
risen to the pitch of requiring the destruction and
devastation of Jerusalem, does he find it necessary
to shift backwards to a corresponding distance the
prospect of the Messianic 'salvation.1 And only after
the kingdom and capital have been delivered from the
threatening -danger of the Assyrian hordes,2 and
Hezekiah has incurred fresh guilt by parading his
treasures and stores of arms, and by his vainglorious
joy over the honour shown him by the Babylonian
king, does the prophet, towards the close of his
ministry, open up the further sad prospect of a fresh
judgment, which should involve the carrying of the
royal family captive to Babylon.3
With Micah the dawn of the Messianic time is
postponed somewhat further than with Isaiah (except
in Isa. 32) ; for he must place in view the downfall of
the existing theocracy and the destruction of the capital
—a perception which requires him to make the rebuild
ing of Jerusalem and the restoration of the Davidic
kingship constituent elements of his Messianic oracle.
1 Isa. 32. 14.
2 On the decision involved, in the above, of the question regarding
the dates of Isaiah's prophecies, cp. the article " Zeitrechnung " in my
Bibelwbrterbuch, p. 18136.
3 Isa. 39. 5 ff. Always supposing that tradition has given this
thieatening prophecy of Isaiah its true historical place.

Its Adaptation to the Times. 163
The perspective towards the future is still further
extended through the prophet's looking beyond the
enthronement of the Messianic king to a final assault
upon the Kingdom of God by the united heathen
world.1 Still, Micah's times-horizon is not wider than
that of his greater contemporary. For him also the
destruction of the Assyrian world-power means the
beginning of the restored and completed Kingdom of
God,2 and the Assyrian appears at the head of the
heathen confederacy in the final conflict against the
holy city, suffering the penalt}r of his ringleader-
ship in the devastation of his land by the victorious
generals of the Messianic king.3
The enthronement of the idolatrous Manasseh con
stituted a new turning-point in the history of the
theocracy. His zeal for idol-worship, the introduction
of the Baal and Ashtaroth cults into the temple in
Jerusalem, the bloody persecution of the faithful
worshippers of Jehovah, particularly the prophets, the
laxity of the priests, the increasing herd of false pro
phets, the general declension of the people, reveal how
the internal condition of the kingdom of Judah, so
hopeful on the whole during the reign of Hezekiah,
reached shortly afterwards a lower stage of degradation
than it had ever known before. Soon the measure of
guilt was fulfilled. Prophecy begins, in consequence,
to threaten a fresh and more severe judgment of ven
geance, involving the destruction of the capital, the
shattering of the kingdom, death for some and cap-
1 Micah 4. 11-13, 5. 5 f. 15. - Micah 7. 8 ff. » Micah 5. 5 f.

164 The Historical Character of Messianic Prophecy:
tivity for others of the people,1 — a threat which is
maintained, even when in the person of Josiah a
God-fearing king was once more on the throne, the
judgment being only delayed until the godly king
shall have entered his rest.2 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
eome from the distant North, and speak an unin
telligible language.3 It is only after the Chaldeans
have begun, in the beginning of the reign of Jehoia-
chim, to assume, in Anterior Asia, the part formerly
played by the Assyrians (i.e. after the battle of Car-
chemish, 606 B.C.), that they 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. Befdre
i Cp. 2 Kings 21. 11 ff.
2 Cp. 2 Kings 22. 15 ff, 23. 26 f., Jer. 15. 4.
3 The hypothesis that the prophecies of Zephaniah and of Jer. 3. 6-
6. 30 find their historical explanation in the invasion of Anterior Asia
bythe Scythians, narrated by Herodotus (i. 15, 103-106; iv. 11, 12).
I 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.1
In the extremity of their judicial sufferings, which,
according to Jeremiah, are to continue for about
seventy years,2 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
herself 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,3 their ethico-religious renewal effected by
'Jer. 30-33. 2 Jer. 25. 11 f., 29. 10. 3 Jer. 31. 34, 33. 8, 50. 20.

166 The Historical Character of Messianic Prophecy :
Jehovah Himself,1 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, aud rejoice once more in
the gracious presence of Jehovah in their midst, and
His government laden with blessing. The theocracy
is restored, and, as so restored, it is the Theocracy of
the perfect time. Throughout, Jeremiah brings the
dawn of the Messianic era into immediate connexion
with the redemption of Israel from the tyranny of the
Chaldeans. Throughout, he speaks of the people who
have returned to the holy land from the exile as of
the community of the perfect time, with whom
Jehovah will make the new covenant, on whose hearts
He will write His law, and all whose members, great
or small, will stand in a like close relation to Him,
and be acquainted with Him. Of fresh catastrophes,
endangering the kingdom of God, and intervening
between the deliverance from the Babylonian exile and
the attainment of the final goal, he knows nothing.
From the moment of this deliverance God's people are
conducted by a straight course and in a short space of
time to their glorious destiny. — In the prophecy of
Jeremiah's contemporary, Ezekiel, who himself lived
and laboured in the land of captivity, we read, indeed,
of such an impending danger as threatening in the " end
of the days," and after the reerection of the theocracy.
The victory of Jehovah and His kingdom over the
1 Jer. 24. 7, 29. 12 f., 31. 33, 32. 39 f., 3. 21 ff.

Its Adaptation to the Times. 167
power of the heathen he divides into two acts, con
siderably distant from each other in point of time.
The judgment of God, bringing redemption to Israel,
affects immediately only the neighbouring peoples that
have already come hitherto into conflict with the
theocracy. After Jehovah has exhibited Himself to
their eyes as the Holy One, who with a mighty hand
redeems His people, the theocracy can be again erected,
and there follows for the people of God a time of sure
rest and deep peace.1 But the peoples in the farthest
North and South (South-West) have not yet come to
know Jehovah's power. They group themselves in
the last days round the northern king, Gog, in conflict
against Israel. But Jehovah annihilates their number-
less troops in the holy land, and casts upon their
countries a consuming fire of judgment.2 Only after
even ¦ the most distant peoples have thus experienced
the power of the living God, and been made aware of
the inviolable holiness of His Kingdom, is the latter
secured from every further attack.3 But if in this
way the " end of the days " is postponed still further,
yet even, according to Ezekiel, the leading back of the
captive people of God to the holy land indicates the
beginning of the perfect time. It is, in fact, just this
great deed of Jehovah's grace, done, not for the worthi
ness of Israel, but for His holy name and truth's sake,
which effects for the hardened and blinded people
what even their extremity in judgment could not
effect, a repentant acknowledgment and remorseful
* Ezek. 38. 8. 1 1 ff. 2 Ezek. 39. 6. 3 Ezek. chaps. 38, 39.

168 The Historical Character of Messianic Prophecy :
shame of their former disloyalties, and a sincere turn
ing to Jehovah.1 And, because the faithful covenant-
God forgives their sins, purifies them from all their
uncleannesses, and gives them a heart of flesh in place
of the stony heart, — gives them even His own Spirit,— t-
they are made ready for perfect fellowship with Him ; 2
and as, further, all the neighbouring peoples have
learnt to fear His power and holy majesty, nothing
now forbids the restoration of the theocracy in all its
final glory. As, with Micah, the Messianic king has
already mounted the throne, when the last decisive
conflict will burst forth between the theocracy and the
heathen world, as, in the Revelation of John, the
kingdom of Christ has been for a thousand years in
existence before Satan is again set free to bring against
it the troops of Gog and Magog;3 so, with Ezekiel
also, the people of God have been for long in the
enjoyment of perfect fellowship with God and the
glory destined for them, before they require to be
secured in the blessings of salvation by God's judgment
upon the hordes of Gog. To him also the deliverance
from captivity and the return to the holy land
appear glorified in the dawn -light of the Messianic
tinie.^-And yet much more is this the case with the
great prophet who lived towards the end of the Exile,
and whose prophecies are contained in Isa. chaps.
40-66. He recognises clearly how thorough a sifting and
1 Ezek. 16. 61 ff, 20. 43 f., 36. 31 f.
2 Ezek. 11. 19 f., 16. 63, 36. 25 ff, 37. 23. 3 Rev. 20.

tl

Its Adaptation to the Times. 169
renewal the people of God still require to be able to
fulfil their great prophetic mission to humanity, and
how, as the servant of Jehovah, Israel must fulfil his
martyr-vocation with enduring patience and faithful
ness unto death before he can attain his destined
lory. His prophecy contains an exceedingly full
picture of future historical events, among which are
many great deeds of Jehovah's grace and judgment,
and many a labour and suffering of the servant of
God, lying between the present and the last time,
when as a royal and priestly people Israel shall stand
between God and humanity,1 the sworn counsel of
Jehovah, that every knee should bow to Him and
every tongue swear to Him,2 be fulfilled, and heaven
and earth be renewed and glorified.3 And yet in the
thorough revolution of the whole situation, effected
in his time by Cyrus, the anointed of Jehovah, the man
chosen by Him to carry out this purpose, Deutero-
Isaiah recognises the birth-throes quivering through
the world, which announce the speedy dawn of the
time of salvation, and after which the perfected
Kingdom will come into existence. Throughout, the
quite near event of the deliverance of the people of
God from the tyranny of Babylon means to him the
starting - point whence the onward course of God's
saving purpose to its goal of fulfilment is uninter
rupted and rapid. The people whom Jehovah in His
own Person brings back from the land of captivity
through the desert to Canaan — a deliverance in which
1 Isa. 61. 6, 66. 21. 2 Isa. 45. 22 ff. 3 Isa. 65. 17, 66. 22.

170 The Historical Character of Messianic Propliecy :
are repeated the deeds of wonder and grace of the
Mosaic time — are fitted by the Spirit of God for the
fulfilment of their high calling ; 1 they are a com
munity of the holy and the righteous ; for no unclean
person returns to the holy City of God,2 all the inhabit
ants of the gloriously restored City will be taught of
Jehovah, even as the prophets now are.3 By the
judgment, further, upon the Chaldean empire, and the
glorious revelation of Jehovah in the deliverance of
His people, the way is prepared even in the Gentile
world for the servant of God to fulfil his vocation ;
the vanity of idols and the sole Godhead of Jehovah
become thus manifest before all flesh,4 as, indeed, his
wonderful successes — successes foretold by Jehovah
— must even now bring Cyrus to the knowledge of
the true God.5 — In short : Henceforth Jehovah will
not again be wroth with His people ; 6 henceforth
He will not fail to glorify Himself ever more in
them in eternal grace, until they shall have come
to participate fully in the salvation of their- God, and
all peoples have been brought into the Kingdom of
God. We might proceed to show how even in the post
exilian period, when the promise of Israel's deliverance
and the reerection of the theocracy had been indeed
fulfilled, while but little of the promised salvation and
glory was to be seen as yet, Messianic prophecy
1 Isa. 42. 1, 44. 3. 2 Isa. 60. 21. 3 Isa. 54. 13.
4 Isa. 40. 5, 45. 6, 49. 26, 52. 10, 59. 19, 66. 18.
6 Isa. 45. 3. . 6 Isa. 54. 9.

Its Adaptation to the Times. 171
announced afresh the message of the shortly coming
glorious completion of the theocracy so barely restored,
and in so doing, clothed itself in a new times-borrowed
garment ; how Haggai 1 announces the performance
within but a short space of a mighty Divine act,
shaking heaven and earth, sea ' and land, and the
kingdoms of all peoples, by which all the power of
the world-kingdoms shall be destroyed, and all peoples
laid under tribute to present to Jehovah the homage
of their gold and silver for the adornment of the
temple, still so little magnificent, so that its glory be
greater than before; how Zechariah singles out the
building of the temple into an edifice worthy of the
entrance and indwelling of Jehovah as the most
important task of the Messias ; 2 how Malachi expects
that the coming of Jehovah will be soon and sudden ; 3
how even in the time of the hard conflict, in which,
under the tyrant Antiochus Epiphanes, Israel had
to engage for his ancestral faith and worship, the
resurrection of dead Israelites, the judgment of the
world and the erection of the Kingdom of heaven upon
the ruins of all earthly kingdoms link themselves, in
the future-seeing eye of a prophet, to the near impend
ing triumph of the people of God over the fall of the
tyrant.4 But we refrain ; for our intention of illus
trating by examples how the prophets, in their belief
in its nearness, place the Messianic salvation in the
' Hag. 2. 6 ; cp. vv. 21 ff. 2 Zech. 6. 16. 3 Mai. 3. 1. 5.
' Dan. 2. 44, 7. 8 f. 11 ff. 21 f. 25 ff, 8. 17, 11. 35. 45, 12. 1 ff.,
7. 11 ff.

172 The Historical Character of Messianic- Prophecy :
most immediate and intimate relation to the historical
circumstances of their own time and to the events of
the immediate future, has been sufficiently fulfilled.
Beyond all question we must recognise, a limit to
the vision of the future granted to the prophets by the
Spirit of Gcd, in the fact that they always believed
the day of Jehovah and the salvation of the perfect
time to be much nearer than they actually were, and
that the saving thoughts of ' God, which should at
some future time attain accomplishment, were always
present to their consciousness: in the veil of features
borrowed from their own times. For it cannot be
pretended that God would always have actually brought
about the accomplishment of His Kingdom in the
precise time and manner announced by the prophets,
had Israel only fulfilled the ethico-religious conditions
attached to the promise. In the counsel of the eternal
and omniscient God, from Whom not even Israel's
future attitude was concealed,, the day and hour of
the fulfilment of His saving decree were determined
before the foundation of the world ; the Saviour could
appear only when " the time was fulfilled," and the
light that should arise with Him upon the world was,
according to the eternal counsel of God, of a much
higher kind than the atmosphere of their time allowed
to appear to the prophets. Yet this limitation of the
prophetic prospect did not imply any lack of Divine
revelation to the prophets ; it was no flaw cleaving to
Messianic prophecy and disfiguring it. It resulted
rather from the same Divine educative wisdom, that

Its Adaptation to the Times. 173
concealed from the apostles — has concealed also from
us — the day and the hour when the Son of Man will
come, but yet bids us observe the signs of the times,
and in stedfast watchfulness and readiness, in firm faith
and enduring hope, keep our gaze directed to the
end of the ways of God. If Messianic prophecy had
shown the goal of the history of the Kingdom of God
in the long misty distance, i wholly separated from the
conditions and circumstances of the actual present, it
would hardly have been able to exercise any influence
upon those to whom yet it was in the first instance
vouchsafed. Only by means of its times - coloured
character, as above explained, could it fulfil its
immediate design of directing the course of the
prophets' contemporaries in present perplexities, of
being to them a light enabling them to recognise the
way, on which God should lead His people in the
present and the immediate future, as one that con
ducted to the perfect consummation, and of giving their
thoughts and conduct direction towards this goal.
Of a solution of the problems of the future that went
further there was no need. If only the next piece of
the road, reaching to the next turning-point in the
history of the Theocracy, were illumined by the light
of the Divine purpose, and if men saw in the judg
ment, iactually on the way, the " Judge of the world
ever in the act of coming," and in the dawn of the
immediately impending time of salvation and grace
the " Saviour of the world ever in the act of coming," x
1 Cp. Oehler in toe. cit. p. 654.

17'4 The Historical Character of Messianic Prophecy:
the. first receivers of the Messianic prophecies were
fully in a position to pass their life in faith and
obedience, in patience and hope, and in their own
place work for the coming of the Kingdom of God,
without being turned from the right course by the
prevalence of unrighteousness within the theocracy, or
by the apparent triumph of the heathen world-powers.
The faith, moreover, of a truly pious Israelite was
not to be shaken by the fact that the dawn of the
perfect time did not happen so soon as the announce
ments of the prophets might lead him to expect, or
that therefore the fulfilment of all the individual
details could, in presence of wholly altered circum
stances, no longer be expected. And for two reasons :
Firstly, immediately succeeding events did not leave
these details altogether unfulfilled. Just as the
prophecy of the world-judgment in Isa. 2 was • in
some sense fulfilled in the judgment which first the
allied Syrians and Ephraimites and then the Assyrians
executed upon Israel, the Messianic prophecy of Isaiah
found at least a relative fulfilment in the deliverance
of the people of God from the danger threatening
them from Assyria, as did also that of Jeremiah,
Ezekiel, and the " Great Unknown " in the redemption
and return of the captives and the reerection of the
theocracy. And even although this times - adapted
fulfilment seemed but a comparatively small beginning
of the great events which prophecy had placed in near
prospect, it was yet necessarily regarded as a pledge
that God was but keeping the full carrying out of

Its Adaptation to the Times. 175
His saving thoughts concerning Israel, announced by
the prophets, safely in store for the succeeding time.
Secondly, and this the other reason, the godly Israelites
always and necessarily recognised in their own guilt
and in the people's unfaithfulness the hindrance,
because of which the holy and righteous God still
kept from them the perfect fulness of the promised
salvation. And, indeed, the prophets themselves when
the good times announced by their predecessors have
actually commenced, and so soon as Israel has incurred
the guilt of a fresh defection, open up prospects of
new and severer judgments which are to precede the
perfect salvation. — Hence also we find that the later
prophets recognised the utterances of their predecessors
as genuine Divine messages, while the later Jews
gave similar recognition to all the prophetic writings
contained in the Old Testament canon, although they
must have known that the Messianic salvation did not
appear so soon as, or in the way in which, it seemed
justifiable from the actual tenor of the words to
expect.1 II. In what we have advanced hitherto there has been
nothing like a complete exhibition of the connexion
between history and Messianic prophecy. The histori
cal circumstances of the varying present exercise a
qualifying and determining influence upon the contents
of the latter that cuts much deeper still — an influence
that effects even its innermost kernel, that eternal ideal
1 Cp. Beetheau in loc. cit. vol. iv. p. 625.

176 The Historical Character of Messianic PropJiecy :
substance that is enclosed in a times-form. We have
in this reference to direct special attention to two points.
1. In the organism of the Old Testament theo
cracy there were various factors which exercised a
determining influence upon the formation of the cir
cumstances and conditions that either coincided with
or contradicted the will of God, and upon the course
of the theocratic development : the congregation, the
priesthood, and prophets ; 1 the common people, the
princes and judges (or, in general, the nobility), and
the kingship. The influence of the different offices and
ranks upon the constitution of public life and the
course of historical development did not remain in the
course of the centuries always the same. It imparted
itself in different measures at different times to the
separate factors. According to the historical situation,
the hopes for the continuance and prosperity of the
theocracy necessarily attached themselves, in greater
degree, now to the one, now to the other. It could
not but be that in the consciousness and thought-world
of the prophets also those factors, which, in their time,
exercised little influence upon the course of affairs,
receded into the background'; while, on the other hand,
their regard was chiefly directed to, and their thoughts
principally occupied with, that factor which exercised
a preponderating influence upon the life of the nation
and the concerns of the theocracy as regarded the
present and the immediate future.
The different situations occupied by the Israelites at
1 Prophetenstand.

Its Adaptation to the Times. 177
the different stages of their history, involved further
that the special attention of the prophets, as well as of
the people and their princes, was turned now to the
relation of the theocracy to the heathen world-empires,
or the relation of Judah to the kingdom of the Ten
Tribes, now to the internal condition of the kingdom
as a whole, or to matters of religious ritual or of civil
law, or to one or other particular national and theo
cratic problem. The central points round which the
genuinely national and theocratic interests and efforts
revolved, were, of course, always equally the central
points of prophetic interest. Both these circumstances
were necessarily of far-reaching importance as regards
the constitution of Messianic prophecy. A special con
sequence was, that now one set of ideas, now another,
all containing germs of Messianic apprehensions,
assumed supreme importance in the prophetic conscious
ness, — now the idea of the congregation of Jehovah,
now that of the kingdom of God, now that of the
theocratic kingship, now that of the priesthood, now
that of the enduring presence of God in the temple.
In virtue, further, of the organic, i.e. the psychologi
cally - mediated, origin of the Messianic prophecies,
those germs that were specially prominent in the
consciousness of particular prophets necessarily came,
so far as these prophets were concerned, to be developed
in preference to others. Hence we see that in the
course of its historical development Messianic prophecy
always chooses as the source of its ideas that fountain
of Old Testament revelations which the special cir-
M

178 The Historical Character of Messianic Prophecy:
cumstances of the time cause to gush forth in greatest
abundance, and that it points to the salvation of the
perfect time, now from this principal point of departure,
now from that. Here a gerrn of Messianic truth
remains for long, like the seed - corn that slumbers
hidden in the earth, until at last the historical circum
stances emerge in which it can come to light and
prove its living motive - force. There, on the other
hand, another comes under favouring circumstances
rapidly to maturity, and unfolds shortly the richest
and fairest blossoms ; then, however, comes a stoppage :
its motive - power seems to abate, and finally to die
away, until, perchance, when the historical circum
stances have again become favourable to its develop
ment, fresh aftergrowths of motive-power prove that
its life is not exhausted yet. The law which in this
relation governs the development of Messianic prophecy,
we may, however, formulate as follows : The prophets
make particular factors in the organism of the Old
Testament theocracy the objects of their Messianic oracles,
in proportion as they are able, in their time, to exercise
a decisive influence upon the realisation oftlie idea of the
Kingdom of God, and similarly they concern themselves
with the different national and theocratic interests, accord
ing to the measure of importance which they have in the
circumstances of the actual present for the Kingdom of
God. In different periods consequently, of the history of
the Old Covenant, now one and now another of the ideas
contained in the Old Testament religion, and embodied
in the Old Testament theocracy, forms the principal

Its Adaptation to the Times. 179
starting-point of Messianic prophecy, and the principal
source of its peculiar content.
We shall endeavour to illustrate and prove this
position more in detail. In doing so we glance first
of all at the history of the development of Messianic
prophecy in the narrower sense of the phrase — that,
viz., which has grown from the idea of the theocratic
kingship. With Joel the Messianic king has found as
yet no place in the picture of the perfected Kingdom.
His prophecy is still a product of the common soil of
the ideas of the people and the kingdom of God ; and
the end which the community is to attain through the
perfecting of its fellowship with Jehovah, is represented
to him in the phenomenon, prophecy. When the gift of
prophecy has become a common possession of all, the
goal is reached.1 With the succeeding prophets the
oracle of the appearance of the Messianic king is in the
moment of birth. Amos associates the dawn of the
perfect time with the restoration of the Davidic king
ship in its former power and glory ; but he does not
speak of the person of the Messias ; in other respects,
too, his prophecy is very undeveloped, for the perfection
of the Kingdom consists, according .to him, principally
in the permanent restoration of a state of things that
has already existed.) In the happy times of David and
Solomon his ideal of the Kingdom of God was already
all but fulfilled.2 The Davidic kingship has the same
position in the prophecy of Hosea ; apart from it, he
also is unable to conceive the Kingdom of the perfect
1 Joel 2. 28 f. Amos 9. 11 f.

180 The Historical Character of Messianic Prophecy :
time. The conversion of Ephraim to Jehovah means
also his return to allegiance to the Davidic king ; x the
latter is not yet, however, called the Messias. We
can hardly be wrong in interpreting this appearance of
the Davidic kingship within the circle of Messianic
prospect as the effect of the very promising fresh
exaltation of the idea which began with the reign of
Uzziah — a king, adorned with all the virtues of a
ruler, as pious as he was energetic.2 Amos and Hosea
clearly recognised that, in spite of the passing pro
sperity it enjoyed again under Jeroboam II., the king
dom, of the Ten Tribes was on the sure way to ruin.
For the evils, however, which inevitably brought about
this result, the kingship, which, amid all changes in the
royal line, kept, even in its better times, to the ways
of Jeroboam I., who " made Israel to sin," was chiefly
responsible.3 The kingdom of Judah, on the other
hand, not merely rose again to a position of external
prestige and power, such as it had not known since the
disruption from the other tribes, but, in spite of the
fact that the prophets still found enough to reprove
and to threaten with punishment, its internal condition
1 Hos. 1. 11, 3. 5. In Hos. 1. 11 the variously interpreted w^'alu
min-Ha'drtts (and they shall come up from the land) is to our think
ing to be understood as referring to the festive convoy which all the
people give to the king of their common choice on his entry into the
palace (cp. the parallel in 1 Kings 1. 35. 40). Simson's exegesis
is therefore- substantially correct (cp. on this passage).
" Cp. on him: Ewald, Gesch. des Volkes Israel, vol. iii. pp. 585 ff.
(Eng. Trans, vol. iv. pp. 143 ff.) ; and Eisenlohr, Das Volk Israel
unter der Herrschaft der Konige, vol. ii. pp. 204 ff.
3 Cp. 2 Kings 14. 24, 15. 9.

Its Adaptation to the Times. 181
also, so far as the influence and powerful rule of the
pious king extended, assumed a hopeful aspect. Men
experienced again what a blessing for the theocracy
the much more firmly rooted kingship of Jehovah's
chosen Davidic house was ; to it Judah owed at least
the greatest proportion of the reasons of its superiority
over the kingdom of the Ten Tribes. In its full resti
tution, consequently, prophecy recognises one of the
most essential conditions of the perfection of the
theocracy. The facts, moreover, that both Amos and
Hosea have principally in view the kingdom of the
Ten Tribes, and that a Davidic king, such as in
their time adorned the throne, seemed competent to
set aside the calf worship of Ephraim, and to restore
the unity and greatness of the theocracy, made it all
the easier for these prophets to content themselves
with the merely general conception of the Davidic
kingship. The Messianic king himself we meet with first of
all in the prophecy of a younger contemporary of
Hosea, the author of Zech. 9—11. He tells1 of the
Messias making his peaceful entry into Jerusalem
amid the plaudits of the people, and depicts the
character of his person and rule. As God Himself
is tsaddik umoshi'a (a just one and a Saviour),2 so is
this king as His representative upon earth tsaddik
vfnosha' (just and saved, E.V. margin) ; his kingly
action is in entire harmony with the standard of the
Divine will, and therefore Jehovah grants him at all
1 Zech. 9. 9 f. 2 Isa. 45. 21.

182 The Historical Character of Messianic Prophecy :
times — and through him the people — salvation.1 He
is, further, humble and meek (dni), far from all
self-exaltation and violence in his bearing to others.
Exaltation and humility, the fulness of God - granted
power, and the meekest, most peaceful disposition are
united in him. Without any of the martial imple
ments of power in use in the kingdoms of the world,
— implements previously removed by God's judgment
from His Kingdom, — he effects peace among the
nations by his mere word. And the blessed rule of
this highly-honoured, Divinely-powerful king of peace
extends from sea to sea, and from the river to the
ends of the earth. Not long after the delineation of
this picture 2 we see the prophecy of the Messianic
king reaching, in the main, the culminating point of its
development in Isaiah and his contemporary Micah.
Both prophets associate with his appearance the dawn
of the Messianic time, and point to him as the
perfecter of the theocracy. Both speak of him as of
a human king, whose person, however, is wonderful,
who in virtue of his unique relation to God stands high
above all other men, as the organ through whom God
Himself accomplishes His saving purpose as the
mediator of the Messianic salvation for the people of
God and for humanity. In the time of Ahaz, Isaiah 3
1 Cp. Jer. 23. 6, Deut. 33. 29.
3 We assume that Zech. chaps. 10 and 11 belong to the time of
Pekah, Zech. 9 to a somewhat earlier date. On the discussion lately
raised afresh by Stade (Zeitsch. fur die alttest. Wissenschaft, 1881, pp.
1 ff. ; 1882, pp. 151 ff. and 275 ff.) as to the date of these prophecies,
we cannot here enter.
3 Isa. 9. 6 f.

Its Adaptation to the Times. 1S3
depicts him as a king, who, in a degree extraordinary
and surpassing human insight, knows to devise always
and for everything the best. counsel; there is some
thing Divinely wonderful in his counsel - creating
energy.1 Because, further, God Himself makes him,
like the angel of Jehovah, the organ of His self-
revelation, accomplishes through him His mighty
deeds of power, and is, in and through him, with His
people, he is called " mighty God " — a designation
applied elsewhere2 to Jehovah Himself. We must
bear in mind the strictness with which Old Testament
faith maintains the transcendence of the holy God
above every creature, to estimate aright the unique
and intimate relation to God ascribed to the Messianic
king by this transference to him of a Divine name.
He is further characterised as the everlasting fatherly
provider for the people of God,3 and — as in Zech. 9
— the prince of peace. His Messianic work of salva
tion, however, consists in delivering the people of God
from the yoke of the Assyrians, in destroying all the
implements of war 4 and establishing eternal peace, in
confirming and enlarging the dominion of the Davidic
kingship, and causing perfect equity and righteousness
to prevail in the kingdom of God.5 Still more minute
1 PeW yoets ; cp. Isa. 28. 29, where it is said of God hiphli' 'etsdh.
2 Cp. Isa. 10. 21, Deut. 10. 17, Jer. 32. 18.
3 Cp. Isa. 22. 21 ff. together with Hab. 3. 3 ff.
4 That both .these functions belong to the Messias we infer from
the ki (for) of Isa. 9. 6, and from the reference to the " day of
Midian " in ver. 4.
5 "Righteousness and judgment" are the foundation of God's
throne, therefore also the foundation of Messias' throne (cp. Ps. 89. 14).

184 TJie Historical Character of Messianic Prophecy:
is Isaiah's characterisation of the person and govern
ment of the Messias in a prophecy belonging to the
time of Hezekiah.1 On him, as on no other, rests the
Spirit of the Jehovah, supplying him with those gifts
and qualifications that fit him to be the organ by
whom Jehovah Himself conducts the government of
His kingdom — with the knowledge and fear of God,
with wisdom for government, with Divinely - effective
energy. His main endeavour is that his people
should fear JehoVah ; his delight is in the fear of
God. In his judicial decisions he does not judge
according to the outward appearance nor according to
human testimony ; his sure insight penetrates rather
always the thing itself and the human heart ; he
judges according to the real state of the case, and
according to men's moral and religious worth. His
exercise of justice is not impaired by human weakness ;
it is exercised by God's Spirit through him in such a
way that in judging men he applies the very standard
according to which Jehovah Himself judges. He
secures their lawful rights, in particular, to the poor
and needy ; but his mere word is sufficient to strike
down the violent and to slay the wicked. Thus he
reigns as a king, whose fairest adornment is righteous
ness and faithfulness towards God and man. Thus,
further, by his rule the theocracy becomes, what it
is intended to be, a kingdom in which evil no longer
happens, and none does hurt to another, — a kingdom
filled with the living knowledge of Jehovah, and
1 Isa. li. l ff.

Its Adaptation to the Times. 185
therefore with righteousness and peace. In relation
also to its extent, the theocracy becomes through him
what it is intended to be. His place of abode becomes
the metropolis of all kingdoms, all nations pay him
homage, and obtain from, him the decision of all
controversies — advice, direction. He is therefore the
mediator of the Messianic saving work of Jehovah
depicted in Isa. 2. 1 ff, by which the nations learn
the law of God, and the earth becomes a kingdom of
peace. — A precisely similar picture of the Messianic
king is drawn by Micah.1 After God's judgment has
gone forth against both Jerusalem and the royal house
of David, the latter will once again be lifted up out
of the deepest humiliation and obscurity to the
highest power and honour. The Messianic branch
will spring, like David, from its ancient stem2 —
from the small, unpretentious Bethlehem. In the
restitution of the Davidic kingship ancient history
repeats itself, just as in the restitution of the people,
by their being led out of the land of captivity. This
Messianic king, moreover, will, as the organ and
viceroy of Jehovah, the shepherd of Israel, fulfil the
part of a shepherd of the people of God, clothed with
the almighty power of Jehovah ; and his rule will
be such, that in and through it God's great name — i.e.
1 Micah 5. 2 ff.
2 In this sense, in contrast partly with the unpretentious place of
birth, partly with the succession of upstarts in the kingdom of the
Ten Tribes, the words umotsd'othdv mikkidhem mimS 'dlam ("whose
goings forth," etc.) are to be understood. Cp. Ewald and Hitzig on
Micah 5. 2. The objection, that all Israelites were of like ancient
origin, is ill-considered. Do not we also speak of an " old family " ?

186 The Historical Character of Messianic Prophecy }
the glory of that which God Himself is to His people
— becomes manifest. Passing by other features in
Micah's description, let us now ask : How did it come
about that just these prophets should have been
forward to develop, almost as perfectly as they have
been developed anywhere in Old Testament times,
the truths regarding the saving purpose and sovereign
plan of God that are involved in the idea of the
theocratic kingship ? — It might be answered : Once
this idea had come within the circle of the Messianic
hopes, the prophets must soon have become conscious
of the contradiction between it and the historical
kingship, and thus the more general prophecy of the
Davidic kingship of the perfect time would necessarily
transform itself into the more definite prophecy of a
Davidic Messias. This explanation, however, cannot
suffice of itself. If this were peculiarly the cause of
the development of Messianic prophecy in the nar
rower sense, why does the" latter not come then
specially to the forefront, when the contradiction is at
its height ? Why not in the time of an Ahaz much
rather than in the time of a Hezekiah ? x And why
is it that, as we shall see, the image of the Messianic
king fades away just during the reigns of the last
kings of Judah ?
1 Delitzsch, indeed, asserts that this was actually the case— but
in contradiction with the facts. Cp. Oehlee, art. "Messias," in
Heezoo's Realencyklopadie, 1st ed. p. 414. In the 2nd ed. von
Orelli has removed the remarks relative to this point, doubtless
because he agrees with Delitzsch in assigning Isa. 11 to the time of
Ahaz (cp. his work, Die alttest. Weissagung) — an hypothesis which
I consider quite unreliable.

Its Adaptation to the Times. 187
We can find the reason of this rapid and rich
development of the , prophecy of the Messianic king
only in the greater importance which, in consequence
of the complications of the theocracy with the Assyrian
world-power, the Davidic kingship won for the former.
These complications were, for the whole course of the
history of the theocracy, much more fatal than the
earlier conflicts with neighbouring peoples. During
them, however, the burden of decision lay principally
with the kingship. The fate and position of the
kingdom depended mainly upon the character of the
king's rule, upon his policy and attitude (of depend
ence or independence) towards the Assyrians. We
see, indeed, how, according to Isa. 7, the fatal choice
made by Ahaz at the decisive moment rendered the
threatening judgment inevitable ; how, according to
Isa. 32, Hezekiah's inclination to defer rather to the
advice of his magnates, who urged an alliance with
Egypt, than to the will of Jehovah, threatens to bring
about yet greater disaster ; and how, on the contrary,
his unreserved decision for Jehovah is the salvation
of the kingdom. No wonder that at such a time the
eyes of the prophets were directed chiefly to the
kingship. The theocracy meets the Assyrian world-
power principally in the person of its king, in whom
its power is concentrated, and who is its representative
abroad. Hence Messianic prophecy begins from this
point to make the accomplishment of the Kingdom, in
spite of the obstacles thrown in its way by the
Assyrian world-power, depend mainly upon the coming

188 The Historical Character of Messianic Prophecy :
of the son of David, in whom the theocratic kingship
should actually become what it ideally is. — It would
be easy to show in detail, particularly from Isa. 9
and Micah 5, how the Messianic kingship is expressly
represented by the prophets as the institution by
means of which the theocracy of the perfect time is
able to exalt itself in victorious defiance of the Assyrian
world-power. That, moreover, the prophets, once they had set
themselves to depict the Messianic king, should give
prominence to the point that under his rule righteous
ness and judgment should have full sway in the
internal affairs of the theocracy, and that the universal
acknowledgment and worship of Jehovah should be
powerfully promoted, resulted almost unavoidably from
their perception of the scanty result attending the
well-meant efforts of Hezekiah in this direction.
Let us mark now the further development o'f the
prophecy concerning the Messianic king. The later
prophets testify unmistakably to an arrest lasting up
to the time of the Exile. The Messias indeed meets
us in Jeremiah at the end of an oracle (belonging to
the time of Jehoiachin) on the wicked and hapless
kings Jehoahaz, Jehoiachim, and Jehoiachin,1 and in
the promises of salvation issued shortly before the
destruction of Jerusalem,2 as also in Ezekiel.3 But he
is no longer, as with Isaiah and Micah, in the centre
of the picture which these prophets draw of the
perfected Kingdom ; and there is hardly a new idea,
1 Jer. 23. 5 f. 2 Jer. 30. 9. 21, 33. 15. 3 21. 27, 34. 23 f., 37. 24.

Its Adaptation to the Times. 189
except perhaps one, new at least as to form, — that, viz.,
implied in the characterisation of the intimate relation
of the Messianic king to Jehovah as a priestly one.1
On the other hand, there are in Jeremiah and Ezekiel,
besides these passages, other Messianic prophecies, in
which again, as with Amos, mention is no longer made
of the person of the Messias, but only of the successive
kings of the Davidic line.2 Messianic prophecy 'in
the narrower sense relapses in these passages to its
initial stage of development. Indeed, other prophets
of the Chaldean period, as Zephaniah, the author of
Zech. 12-14, Obadiah, and the author of Isa. 24-27,
do not mention the kingship of the Messianic theocracy
at all, — a distinct proof that the idea of the theocratic
kingship had, in the consciousness of the godly of that
time, lost much of its significance for the theocracy.
As opposed to it, the idea of the people of God again
constitutes the principal starting-point and source of
the Messianic prophecy of this time. Does not this
arrest or even retrogression in the development of the
prophecy, that grew from the idea of the theocratic
kingship, hang together with the fact that the power
and influence of the kingship continued visibly to
decline ? The fortune and position of the theocracy
were no longer dependent to the same extent as in
the Assyrian period upon the king. Even a godly
king like Josiah could at most postpone only for a
1 Jer. 30. 21.
2 Cp. Jer. 17. 25, 22. 4, 33. 17. 21 f. 26, Ezek. 17. 22 ff., 45. 8, 46.
16 ff.

19 0 The Historical Character of Messianic Prophecy :
while — he could not avert — the ruin that threatened
the state.1 The last kings did, indeed, their best to
destroy the theocracy, and to hasten the ruin of the
state. But the kingdom was already practically at the
disposal of the powers that were contending for the
world-supremacy. Even the kings themselves were, in
part, raised to the throne by these powers, Jehoiachim
by Pharaoh Necho, Zedekiah by Nebuchadnezzar, of
whom the former brought to a rapid close the reign of
Jehoahaz, the latter that of Jehoiachin. Those who
had the interests of the theocracy at heart could no
longer regard a kingship that lay at the disposal of
the governors of heathen empires as the main pillar
of support for the building of the theocracy. Least of
all, when the king showed himself, like Zedekiah,
powerless and irresolute in presence even of his own
magnates. The Book of Jeremiah reveals distinctly
how greatly this king feared to rouse the great men of
the kingdom against himself by following his better
impulses.2 The circumstance that, owing to the
historical situation, the kingship was no longer the
factor that determined the course of the history, is the
reason why the Messianic prophecy of this period no
longer places in the forefront the perfecting of the
kingship in the person of the Messias as the principal
condition of the perfected theocracy, but represents
rather — in so far as the Messias is mentioned at all — -
" the kingship of the Davidic house, glorified by Divine
1 Cp. 2 Kings 22. 15 ff. 23. 26 f., Jer. 15. 4.
2 Cp. e.g. Jer. 37. 17, 38. 14 ff. >

Its Adaptation to the Times. 191
graces and gifts, only as an appendix to the other
blessings which fall to the lot of the favoured
people." 1
In the time of the Exile the hopes and prospects of
salvation free themselves entirely from- connexion with
the Davidic kingship. In Isa. 40-66, — that "gospel
before the gospel," — in which the Messianic ¦ prophecy
of the Old Testament reaches what is, in many respects,
the height of its development, there is no mention
anywhere of the future Messianic king. Not even in
Isa. 55. 3—5, where, on the contrary, the " sure mercies
of David " are rather expressly assigned to the people.2
— At this time, when the theocratic state had collapsed
and the ritual of sacrifice had ceased, neither the
kingship nor the priesthood, but only genuine prophecy,
could be the centre of Israel's national and religions
life, or be regarded as the vital factor insuring the
continuance and regeneration of the Kingdom of God.
To it the • eyes of all who waited for the promised
salvation necessarily turned, when they sought a God-
given pledge of their hope. Prophecy was not,
however, a secure and stable institution. The gift
and office of prophecy were attached only to the
persons of those whom Jehovah had called, and not
even several isolated historical personages — much less
one — could be regarded as the bearers of the Messianic
salvation. Their position in the theocracy rested,
1 Cp. Beetheau in loc. cit. vol. iv. p. 684.
T 2Cp. in loco, on the one hand, 2 Sam. 7. 8 ff, Ps. 18. 43 ff. 50;
and, on the other, Isa. 43. 10, 44. 8.

192 The Historical Character of Messianic Prophecy :
however, on the fact, that as the chief representatives
of the idea of the people of God they were before
others possessed and illumined by the Spirit of God :
and the gift of the Spirit was promised to the whole
community. Hence all the Messianic prospects begin
now to connect themselves with the idea of the people
of God, in such a way, however, that the latter come
to be regarded as an organ of Jehovah, entrusted with
a prophetic calling to humanity. The part of the
Messianic king, endowed with the fulness of God-given
might and sovereign power, and triumphing victoriously
over all enemies, is assumed by the people, the
servant of Jehovah, who fulfils amid shame and
persecution his prophetic witness-vocation with im
movable faithfulness, with enduring patience, and with
strong faith and hope, and goes through suffering to
glory. He it is who is now the central figure of the
picture of the perfect time. He is the organ through
whom God redirects in glorified form His Kingdom
upon earth, and brings to pass His saving purpose
concerning entire humanity.1
So soon, on the other hand, as the theocratic state
is externally restored, and, in the person of Zerubbabel,
a prince of the house of David stands at its head
as one of its principal supports, we find that with
1 It will not appear surprising that the Messianic king finds no place
in the picture of the perfect time sketched by Deutero-Isaiah, if it is
remembered that the omission implies only a reassumption on the
part of prophecy, in more complicated form, of the ancient Mosaic and
more ideal conception, which represents Jehovah's rule over the entire
people as immediate (cp. pp. 103 f. ).

Its Adaptation to the Times, 193
Haggai1 and Zechariah2 the prophecy of the Messianic
king immediately revives, and receives, in fact, a new
shape from the hand of the latter prophet after a manner
peculiarly his own, to which we shall recur further on.
With Malachi, on the contrary, in whose time there
was no longer a Davidic prince, it again disappears,
in order finally — not as a natural product of the times,
but only as the result of an acquaintance with prophetic
ivritings that have come to be regarded as Holy Scriptures
— to flash forth once again in the Book of Daniel,
and shed yet another clear light upon the superhuman
character of the. person of the Messias. For, when
there had been for long no native kingship, and the
house of David was sunk in obscurity, when, never
theless, ancient prophecy had left the expectation
of a Messianic king indelibly rooted in the hearts of
the people, this book announces the Messias no longer
definitely as an offspring of the family of David, but
characterises him as a person inhuman form, who indeed
belongs as their royal head to the saints of the Most
High, but whose descent remains concealed in the dark
ness of mystery, while his superhuman character mani
fests itself in the fact that, like Jehovah Himself, the
Son of man comes on the clouds of heaven, to be invested
by God with the eternal Kingship over a Theocracy
reared upon the ruins of all the kingdoms of the world.3
1 Hag. 2. 21 ff., — a passage which, according to the analogy of Gen.
12. 3, cp. with Gen. 18. 18, 22. 18, is to be understood, not merely of
the person of Zerubbabel, but of him and his family.
2 Zech. 3. 8 ff, 6. 9 ff.
3 Dan. 7. 13 f. It is notoriously a matter of dispute whether the
N

1 94 The Historical Character of Messianic Prophecy :
Thus far our glance at the course of the develop
ment of the prophecy of the Messianic king has
confirmed the propositions we laid down. They
figure resembling a son of man is, in the prophet's intention, the
Messias, or whether — as particularly Hitzig in loco, and Hofmann,
Weissagung und Erfiillung, i. pp. 209 f. ; Schriftbeweis (1st ed.) ii.
2, pp. 541 f. , assume — the prophet means merely to give a symbolical
representation of "the people of the saints of the Most High." The
latter view seems able to support itself upon the author's own testimony
in vv. 18, 22, and 27 ; and it must be allowed that the kfibhar "tndsh
(like a son of man) corresponds with the ifi'aryeh (like a lion), ver. 4, and
the kwfimar (like a leopard), ver. 6, in such =• way as to oppose the
man-forms to the orMie-forms, representing the world-monarchies,
— a circumstance which makes it natural to regard the former, not
as a personal individual, but as a typico-visionary representation
of another kind of dominion. If this view were correct, we should
have to concede that with Daniel also, as with Malachi, the form of
the Messianic king recedes into dimness, and hence that a character
entirely in keeping with the circumstances of the times belongs to his
prophecy. — We consider, however, the old and prevalent interpretation
of the passage to be the right one — that, viz. , which is presupposed in
the Book of Enoch (46. 1, 48. 2 ff., 62. 5. 7, 69. 27. 29) and in the
Fourth Book of Ezra (13. 1 ff. 12. 32 ff.), and which refers the passage
to the Messias. Besides the merely typical figures, the vision represents
also persons, who appear without figurative veil ; this is true specially
of the heavenly j udgment-scene, in which the description — apart from
the reference to the beasts in vv. 11 and 12 — loses its figurative-
allegorical character. This of itself makes it probable that he who
appears in human form before God is no mere typical figure, but a real
personality. And it is confirmed by the fact — to which Auberlen
has already directed attention (Der Prophet Daniel und die Offenbarung
Johannis, 2nd ed. pp. 51 f .) — that ver. 21 makes it necessary to dis
tinguish the saints of the Most High from the Son of man. It would
be, to say the least, a striking incongruity if it were there (in ver. 21)
presupposed that the saints were to he seen in the vision befm-e the
judgment-scene as the object of persecution from the little horn, and
yet were to be regarded also as represented in the typical figure of the
Son of man, whose appearance has already been represented with the
greatest emphasis in ver. 13 as astoundingly new, and as taking place in
the course of the judgment-scene and after the accomplishment of the
judgment upon the beasts. Add to this, that it could hardly be said
of the holy people that they came "with (i.e. upon) the clouds of

Its Adaptation to the Times. 195
receive, however, a much more obvious confirmation,
if we remark the time and historical circumstances in
which the idea of the priesthood comes to have a
heaven." The circumstance that God's judgment-seat is in heaven
cannot justify this expression (contra Kamphausen in Bunsen's
Bibelwerk) ; it would supply at best only a reason for representing the
Son of man as elevated to heaven ; moreover, the scene of the judgment
is, to all appearance, not heaven but earth, to which the Ancient of
days (ver. 22) and the Son of man descend. A more feasible argument
would be that implied in Hitzig's reference to Dan. 8. 10, according to
which the nation of saints (ver. 24) are to the seer of the vision the host
of the stars in the heavens. But even thus the peculiar loftiness of
the expression, which is used elsewhere only of God (Isa. 19. 1, Ps. 104.
3), does , not seem sufficiently justified. It must be allowed to be
designed to express that superhuman, Divine character of the appear
ing one, which would not certainly be inferred from the fc> in kfibhar
'£ndsh (vid. supra). But this can be only the Messianic king, who
stands at the head of the saints of the Most High, the representative
and organ beside and under the Prince of the host of heaven (8. 11),
and who, according to the but slightly younger Third Book of the
Sibyllines, vv. 286 f. (where the reference, as Hilgenfeld, Jud.
Apokalyptik, pp. 81 ff., has rightly contended, is not to Cyrus), is sent
by God ourandtlien (from heaven), and according to vv. 286 ff.
ap' eelloio (from the sun) — quite improperly rendered by some "from
the East. " In him the Messianic kingdom comes from above, from
the God of heaven, and is destined to embrace the whole ear.th (Dan.
2. 34 ff. 44 f.), and through him as their head the saints of the
Most High also receive kingdom and dominion (7. 18. 22. 27). That
the Messias should be conceived as in heaven and coming thence,
would be most easily explained if, as Oehler (art. "Messias" in
Herzog's Realencycl. p. 417 ; Theol. des Alt. Test. ii. pp. 144 and 265)
and Hilgenfeld (in loc. cit. pp. 47 ff.) think, it could be proved
that in the Book of Daniel — esp. 10. 5 ff. — the conceptions of the
angel of Jehovah and of the Messias are combined. Proof, however,
fails ; even the kidhfimuth Ifine 'ddhdm (like the image of the sons of
men) and kemar'eh 'ddhdm (like the appearance of a man) in the
description of the angel is no proper parallel to the tebhar 'gnash of 7.
13. Its true parallel is the expression demuth kemar'eh 'ddhdm used
by Ezekiel (1. 26) in the description of the theophany. There is
nothing in the former of the two supposed parallels to remind us of
the Son of man. Besides, if he were conceived as an angelic personality,
vv. 18, 22, and 27 of chap. 7 could hardly take his fellowship

196 The Historical Character of Messianic Prophecy :
greater importance for Messianic prophecy. Through
out the entire pre-Exilian period the priest, it is true,
receives mention now and then in the delineation of
the theocracy of the perfect time,1 but never, not even
in Ezekiel, is any cooperation in the accomplishment
(Zugehdrigkeit) with the saints of the Most High so completely for
granted. As little feasible is the suggestion of Hitzig, that the basis
of this conception of the Son of man lies in the more developed belief
in immortality, and that he is to be identified with David, leading a
h eavenly life after death. Wi thout unj ustifiable dogmatising, however,
neither the Divinity of the Messias nor yet the conception of an
dnthropos epourdnios (heavenly man) (Beyschlag, Die Christologie
des Neuen Testamentes, p. 13), who has preexisted as a supra-
terrestrial being, can be extracted from the passage. The prophet
gives no indication as to the origin of the Son of man ; he presupposes
only his fellowship (Zugehorigkeit) with the saints of the Most High.
The basis of the conception that he is in heaven and comes thence is
no relation to God or men founded upon his origin or nature — in
short, no metaphysical Theologoumenon whatsoever. It is simply the
appropriateness of the description itself, in view of- the position in the
theocracy assigned to the Messias in the eternal counsel of God ; in other
words, it is the idea of the theocratic or (as in some cases) Messianic king
ship handed down from the elder prophecy; he is conceived as being in
heaven a.nd coming thence only because he is the representative and
organ of the God of heaven, and to him, as such, the superhuman
character and the Divine position and dignity — lent, as it were, by
God — are really appropriate, which according to Isa. 14. 14 the insolent
king of Babylon would fain claim for himself. Be it finally remarked
that we do not consider the main argument for the view we have
rejected — extracted as it is from 7. 18. 22. 27 — as decisive, for this
among other reasons, because vv. 13 f. — in so far as here the text loses
its figurative-allegorical character — did not, like the pictures of the
beasts, the ten horns, and the little horn, require special explanation
(at least in the same way), whereas prominence had necessarily to be
given to the fact that the saints of God, who had been for a time in
the power of the tyrant Antiochus, would finally reign over all the
kingdoms of the world. How a view which requires us to suppose the
reappearance of the picture of the Messias in a kingless time can be
reconciled with the nature of prophecy, is shown above.
1 E.g. Jer. 31. 14, 33. 18 ff.

Its Adaptation to the Times. 197
of the Divine purpose of salvation assigned to the
priesthood. The reason of this lies in the fact that
the priesthood-^assigned from the first the duty of
conserving religious custom, and the legally ordained
constitution of the national worship — did not" during
the - time of the kings exercise any very marked
influence upon the historical course of the theocracy.
Even the exception we may make in favour of the
influence for a short time exercised by the high
priests Jehoiada 1 and Hilkiah 2 must be qualified by
the remembrance that the interference of these men
in the fortunes of the kingdom was due, not so much
to their official dignity, as to their personal energy, —
albeit the latter was seconded by the former. — When,
further, the Messianic prophecy of the time . of the
Exile represents the people of God, on the attainment
of their destined goal, as a priestly people mediating
between God and the rest of humanity,3 the starting-
point of this announcement is, without doubt, sub
stantially the idea of Jehovah's peculiar people, as in
Ex. 19. 6, and not the idea of the special Levitical
priesthood. Still, the priests (specially the high priest),
as the pure sanctified mediatorial representatives before
Jehovah of the congregation entrusted with the office
of expiation, were tupoi tdn melldnton (types of things
to come). In the priesthood also there lay a germ of
Messianic truth, capable of being developed. This
germ actually was developed in the time immediately
succeeding the return from the Exile. The rebuilding of
1 2 Kings, chaps. 11 and 12. 2 2 Kings 22. 3 Isa. 61. 6, 66. 21.

198 The Historical Character of Messianic Prophecy*
the temple and the restoration of the temple worship
formed at this time the centre of all national and
theocratic interests and efforts. On these objects,
according to prophecy, the concern of God Himself for
His people was now concentrated. Byv guaranteeing
the completion of the building of the temple, Jehovah
guaranteed also the continuance and the future per
fection of the theocracy. At such a time the priest
hood had a much greater importance than formerly
for the future of the theocracy. But, in particular,
the high priest Joshua occupies a position of in
dependent importance side by side with the Davidic
Zerubbabel, such as high priest never before enjoyed
in relation to the king; and both work in harmonious
zeal, encouraged by prophetic promises, at the building
of the dwelling-place of God and the restitution of the
theocracy. These historical circumstances are reflected
in Messianic prophecy. The priests, whose official
character is purity and holiness, and who, in virtue of
their office, may draw near to Jehovah, now become
the pretypes of the congregation of the perfect time,
who are purified from their sins, are holy, and have
priestly access to Jehovah ; and, in particular, the high
priest becomes a type of the Messias who stands at
the head of this, community.1 The Messias is thus
definitely conceived as a priest -king, not, of course,
because he is to offer sacrifices and expiate the people's
guilt, but only because he is, in a special degree, a
sanctified person, and, as belonging to God, is entitled
1 Zech. 3. 8ff, 6. 11 ff.

Its Adaptation to the Times. 199
to immediate priestly access to Him, and because he
is the head and representative of a holy, priestly
people, purified from sin and guilt. It is with refer
ence to precisely this function that the high priest
Joshua, and not the Davidic Zerubbabel, is made the
type of the Messias. But there is yet another reason
for the preference. — The prophet Zechariah does not,
as is usually supposed, mean to announce that the
Messias will unite in his person the kingly and the
high priestly office. Kather he shows us the Messianic
high priest alongside of the Messianic king in the
perfected Kingdom, the former sitting beside the
latter on the royal throne, and both working together —
as at that time Zerubbabel and Joshua actually did —
in harmonious cooperation for the weal of the people
of God and in the interest of the theocracy. The
prophet, indeed, represents the rule of the Messianic
kingdom as emphatically a unity, and as a government
by king and high priest ; but this unity is not effected
by the union of both offices in one person, but by the
elevation of the high priest to the throne of the Messias,
and by the perfect oneness of mind and spirit, in which
the Messianic king and the Messianic high priest con
duct their common government.1 And it is precisely
this relationship of close alliance and community in rule,
1 Zech. 6. 13. Against the prevalent interpretation — again defended
even by 'Ka&'LET. (Die nachexilischen Propheten), Keil, Pressel, Kuper
(in loc. cit. pp. 414 f.) von Orelli (in loc. cit. pp.499 ff.), — of the words
wthdyah khohen 'al-kis'o: "and he (the Messias) shall be a priest on
his throne," the concluding words, "and the counsel of peace (i.e.
harmonious cooperation) shall be between them both," are decisive.
For the sense of this clause cannot be : " The Messias, in whom king

200 The Historical Character of Messianic Prophecy:
in which the high priesthood will stand to the king-*
ship, that is meant to be indicated in the fact that
Joshua, and not Zerubbabel, is made the type of the
Messias. — Even in the prophecy of Malachi it is
clear that the priesthood still occupies a comparatively
important position in the circle of Messianic expecta
tions. In the censures of this prophet special atten-
and priest have become one, shall conceive and accomplish a scheme
of helping the people of God to peace," which is contrary to the plain
sense of ben-shenehim (between them two). The concluding sentence
speaks distinctly of two persons, and therefore the disputed words — in
spite of the surprising ufihdydh, instead of the more-to-be-expected
yfiyashabh, which, however, had preceded, and therefore was hardly
available — can only, with Ewald, Hitzig, Bertheau, and Stahelin,
be translated: "And a priest shall be on his throne." But the
suffix in kis'o is usually referred to kohen. In that case the objections
against this translation are fully justified. It is not characteristic of
the priest that' he should sit upon a throne, rather that he should
stand before Jehovah (Deut. 17. 12, Judg. 20. 28), — an argument that
is, of course, not weakened by a reference to 1 Sam. 4. 13. 18. And
the announcement that in the Messianic time there should also be a
priest, would be almost inept. Precisely as in the preceding 'al-kis'6
the suffix is to be referred to the Messias (cp. Ex. 11. 5, 12. 29, where
the suffix is probably best referred to Par'oh, and the at least analogous
cases Jer. 13. 13, 22. 4), and the sense is : A priest shall sit;beside the
Messias on his (the Messias') throne (cp. on the implied situation, Ps.
110. 1, Eev. 3. 21, and the art. " Thron " in my Bibelworterbuch, p.
16606). The sense is rightly given in the LXX. : kai istai hiereus ek
dexibn autou (and a priest shall be on his right hand) (in accordance
with which Stade, Zeitsch.fiir die alttest. Wissensch. 1881, p. 10, note,
too hastily wishes to substitute on his right hand for on his throne, in
•the Hebrew text). — -We may refer, further, to the fact that the juxta
position of a Messianic king and a Messianic priest agrees with the
vision of Zech. 4, where the kingship and the high priesthood (the
two olive trees), or, otherwise, their bearers (the two branches of the
olive, cp. ver. 14), are the organs which conduct to the organism of the
theocracy the Spirit of Jehovah (the oil) by which it is nourished and
preserved. The violent emendations of Ewald, Hitzig, and others in
vv. 11 and 12 we consider superfluous. My conception of the passage
is supported by H. Sohultz in loc. cit. p. 257 (2nd ed. pp. 744 f.).

Its Adaptation to tlie Times. 201
tion is paid to the priesthood, sacrifice, the tithes,
etc. ; and the main purpose alleged for the judicial
coming of Jehovah is the purifying and renewal of
the Levites, in consequence of which the offerings of
the purged community, offered through a purged priest
hood, will be acceptable to Jehovah.1
There is yet another Messianic expectation, appear
ing first in the time of the Exile, and taking shape
only after the Exile — the expectation, viz., that the
Theocracy of the perfect time would be erected by
Jehovah's personal advent, and His celebration in the
temple, constituted now His eternal dwelling-place, of His
entrance into His own? That such a prophecy was
developed at the date indicated has its reason in the
fact that at that time the national and theocratic
interest was mainly directed to the scheme of rebuild
ing the temple, and making it what it had been in
former times. Even Ezekiel had prophesied of the
coming again of the glory of Jehovah into the new
temple.8 . The " Great Unknown " had announced the
near advent of the God of Israel.4 But Haggai and
Zechariah were the first to give the building and
glorifying of the temple such a central position among
the prospects of salvation as to set even the conversion
of the heathen in teleological relation to that event,5
and to make the building of the temple the principal
business of the Messias,6 seeing that, with the dawn
1 Mai. 3. 3f. 8 See Appendix A, Note VII.
3 Ezek. 43. 2ff. * Isa. 40. 9f., 52. 8, 60. 1 f. 19 f.
6 Hag. 2. 7 ff., Zech. 6. 15. 6 Zech. 6. 13, also 3. 9, 4. 7. 10.

202 The Historical Character of Messianic Prophecy :
of the perfect time, Jehovah will arise from His holy
dwelling-place to make His abode for ever in the
midst of Jerusalem.1 With Malachi, however, this
coming to His temple of Jehovah, or the angel of the
covenant, in whom He appears, and through whom, as
the guardian and restorer of the covenant (hence the
name), He holds the assize that separates evil-doers
from His people, and takes to Himself His true
people, becomes the main idea of Messianic prophecy.2
These references ought to suffice to convince us that,
according to the counsel of God, the course of history
and the change of historical circumstances necessarily
1 Zech. 2. 10. 11. 13, 8. 3.
2 Mai. 3. 1-9. 16 ff. The mal'akh hablfirith (angel of the covenant)
is not identical with the previously mentioned messenger who goes
before Jehovah, and is -therefore not Elias (contra Ewald and Hitzig),
for this view is contradicted by the mutual relations of the clauses of
the verse, and particularly by the perfect parallelism of the two relative
clauses, and their symmetrical reference to Mai. 2. 17. From both it is
clear that the appearance of the angel of the covenant is simultaneous
with the coming of the Lord to His temple, while the messenger of
Jehovah (Elias) precedes both. Moreover, the nir'dh (appearing) of
Mai. 3. 2 is not an appropriate phrase to apply to a merely human agent,
and the judicial activity assigned to the angel of the covenant does not
suit Elias. But neither also may we, with Hengstenberg, think of the
Messias, or, with Hofmann, of another Moses. Bather is meant the angel
of Jehovah, in whom Jehovah Himself appears, for He suffers His name
(i.e. His manifested being) to dwell in him (cp. Ex. 23. 20, 14. 19,-Nuru.
20. 16, Isa. 63. 9). This angel is also, in an essentially similar way,
described as the angel of the covenant (Ex. 23. 20 ff). Since the fore
going remarks were published, and, as it would appear, independently
of them, the correct view has been acknowledged by Kohler, Pressel,
Keil, KiiPER (in loc. cit. p. 436), and von Orelli (in loc. cit. p. 509).
The objections of Steinee (4th ed. of Hitzig's Kleinen Propheten) are
irrelevant, for the copula before mal'akh does not prove his difference
from ha'ddhon (the Lord) (op. Zech. 9. 9) ; the participle bd' after
hinneh has equal force with the Fut. Imperf. ydbho', and ver. 3 does not
speak of a way-preparing, but of a sifting and purifying judicial function.

Its Adaptation to the Times. 203
served gradually to develop the various germs of Messi
anic truth contained in the Old Testament religion,
so as to indicate from various points of view the salva
tion which should appear when the time was fulfilled.1
2. It remains now to expound the second point, in
which the influence of contemporary history makes
itself from time to time felt even in the ideal sub
stance of the Messianic prophecies. The history of
the Old Testament covenant - people* is itself the
progressive carrying out of the plan devised by God
for reaching the goal of His saving purposes. By
God's leading and government Israel must be educated
and prepared for the fulfilment of his calling and the
reception of salvation. And the whole world-govern
ment of God, even in .so far as it determines the
fortunes of other peoples, has its centre and goal in
the fulfilment of His decree regarding Israel. In the
different periods of the history now one and now
another of the fundamental laws of God's government
of the world and His Kingdom comes prominently
into view, just as Israel's ethico-religious condition,
his external position, and the general circumstances
of the nations may at this time or that determine.
The moral order of the world, that presides over
history and prescribes its course, asserts itself in
relation to the different directions and objects pur-
1 It is to the credit of Hofmann that in his work, Weissagung und
Erfullung, he has been the first to exhibit this connexion between
history and prophecy from the point of view of a believer in revelation.
This, in spite of the many deficiencies — due mainly to his disowning,
on principle, all criticism — of this work in other respects.

204 The Historical Character of Messianic Prophecy:
sued by human freedom in such a way that now one
and now another of the eternal truths which it
embraces finds actual attestation in preference to
others. The course of history is mainly determined,
now by this anon by that other of the eternal thoughts
of God, whose sum constitutes the unalterable pro
gramme of government which the King of kings has
marked out for Himself. — At new turning - points,
moreover, in the progress of historical development
there generally emerge also to light, from the darkness
of the hidden counsel of God, new moments of this
saving plan. If history itself is the progressive
carrying out of the Divine programme, it must also
tend more and more to discover it. — Now, the
prophet discerns the Divine teleology of the history of
his time ; to his enlightened eye there is granted an
insight into the reason and purposes of the Divine
action in the present and immediate future. Those
thoughts of God, which take shape in the history
of his time, as well as the new moments of the
Divine purpose, which begin to be accomplished in
it, emerge to his view from the dark confusion of
daily events with a clearness that dispels the dark
ness. To give heed to the signs of the times, and
point them out to others, to be to his contemporaries
the interpreter of God's language to His people in
the facts of history ,^-is, in fact, a part of the prophet's
task that is essential to his vocation. — In view of the
psychologically mediated origin of Messianic prophecy,
we cannot but conclude that the thoughts of God, which

Its Adaptation to the Times. 205
mainly determine the course of history in the time of the
prophet, and with which, therefore, his mind is especially
occupied, are also the fundamental thoughts which give
his Messianic prophecy its peculiar content and character.
For the same reason fresh combinations of historical
circumstances, new "signs of the time," will yield
fresh ideas for Messianic prophecy. So often as, in the
progress of history, preparations begin to be made towards
a new issue, tliere will flash upon the prophet new gleams
of insight into the saving purpose of God, and into the
ways and means of its execution. Hence the parallelism
already mentioned between history and prophecy, hence
the march together in step of the development of the
history of the theocracy and the development of
Messianic prophecy.
We shall attest and illustrate the truth of these
remarks, as before, by some examples. One, lying
immediately to hand, is the prophecy of the entrance
of the heathen into the Kingdom of God. The univers-
alistic tendency, inherent in the Old Testament religion,
was, in the early days of the latter, restrained by the
wholly national constitution of the theocracy, and the
relation of sharp contrast in which at first Israel
necessarily stood to other nations. As yet Israel
altogether resembled an arrow hid in the quiver for
future use (Isa. 49. 2). Even the Messianic prophecy
of the oldest prophets is essentially particularistic.
With Joel the scene of the Kingdom, perfected on
earth, is still the small country of Judah ; there is not a
single reference to the kingdom of the Ten Tribes ; there

206 The Historical Character of Messianic Prophecy:
is not the slightest word of any participation by the
heathen in the Messianic salvation. They are noticed
only in so far as they stand in hostile opposition to the
theocracy, and are therefore victims of the avenging
judgment. But even this judgment strikes only the
neighbouring peoples, including Egypt ; the distant
"men of Sheba" it leaves untouched.1 With Amos
the Theocracy of the perfect time extends not only
over the whole of Palestine, but also over the neigh
bouring countries, in so far as they had once been
subjected by David.2 But with Amos also, Judah
with the house of David at its head is the recipient
of the Messianic salvation ; through 'their connexion
with Judah, the Ephraimites also participate ; not so
on the other hand, the neighbouring heathen peoples,
who can recognise only the supremacy of the people of
God and of the house of David. — Hosea also places
the Messianic salvation within the prospect of Israel
alone. In Zech. 9. 9 f. we meet, indeed, with an
extension of the Messianic outlook beyond the confines
of Israel ; the King of peace exercises his blissful sway,
over other peoples besides Israel, to the ends of the
earth. But it is noticeable that it is only here that
for the first time the universalistic moment, contained
in the idea of the theocratic kingship, comes to view
(p. 116). The first prophecy, preserved to us, properly
relating to the entrance of the Gentiles into the
1 Joel 3. 8.
2 Hence Edom is not, as with Joel, made a desert, but only subject
to the people of God.

Its Adaptation to the Times. 207
Kingdom, lies before us in those famous words,
delivered by Isaiah and Micah, which show us the
mountain of the house of Jehovah, towering above
all other mountains, as the centre of the earth,
whither all peoples go up, yearning for salvation,
to be instructed in His ways by the God of Jacob,
and to walk in His paths.1 At the basis of this
prophecy there lies the clear perception that in the
counsel of God His revelation among His people Israel
is destined for all humanity. — It is some older prophet,
unknown to us,2 who has been the first, in such words,
to claim the whole earth for the Kingdom of his God,
and to announce to all peoples the message of salva
tion. But he can hardly belong to a much earlier
time. For precisely the circumstance that the two
principal prophets of the Assyrian period, Isaiah and
Micah, reproduce his words, proves how new and
remarkable such a prophecy still appeared in their
time, and the older prophetic writings, which are
preserved to us, contain, as we have seen, no parallel
to it. — But, apart from this passage, we find that Isaiah
and Micah repeatedly express the universalistic idea.
In Isa. 19. 18—25, in particular, it is developed in
detail in a very peculiar manner. For here the
prophet expressly shows us the theocracy of the last
time as one embracing all the then known world, a
universal Theocracy blessed by Jehovah in all its three
parts. Israel, the inheritance — ars it were, the original
1 Isa. 2. 2-4, Micah 4. 1-4.
2 In no case Joel, as some have thought.

208 The Historical Character of Messianic Prophecy:
land (Stammland) — of Jehovah, making the centre, on
the one side Egypt as a land and people that now belong
to God, on the other Assyria, now also, as Israel, the
work of His hands, neither of them any longer in
conflict for the world supremacy, but both serving
Jehovah, and enjoying peaceful mutual intercourse. —
The case stands obviously thus : So long as Israel
did no more than come in contact with neighbouring
peoples, so long, i.e., as the decree of God that the
theocracy founded in Israel should have no merely
national, but a universal-human destination, had not
as yet declared itself in history ; just so long Messianic
prophecy announces nothing of the future extension of
the theocracy over all peoples.' Only when, through
the successful efforts of the Assyrians to found a world-
empire, the fortunes of Israel and the theocracy began to
entwine themselves vnth the fortunes of all peoples of the
world known to Israel, did this Divine catholicity of
aim become apparent in the course of history to the
enlightened eye of him who understood the signs of
the times. Thenceforward Israel occupies, as it
were, a loftier position — world-historical, and within
the horizon of all peoples far and near. Hence the
clear full knowledge, beginning from this time, that
God's deeds in and for Israel concern all peoples;1
hence it is that an Isaiah begins to draw the entire
history of the world within the sphere of prophecy by
first concerning himself in detail with the fortunes of
foreign peoples; hence also, in short, the idea in
1 Cp. e.g. Isa. 8. 9, 18. 3. 7, 33. 13.

Its Adaptation to the Times. 209
Messianic prophecy of the universality of the perfected
Kingdom of God. May we not, perhaps, go further ?
May we not say that just as Assyria, the instrument
in the hand of Jehovah, was impelled to intervene in
the history of Israel, and so minister unconsciously
to the fulfilment of God's purpose, she must needs
similarly have exercised — and that altogether immedi
ately — a stimulating effect upon the development of
the knowledge of God's saving purpose. For the idea
of a world-empire, a universal monarchy was grasped
by the Assyrians earlier than by the Israelites. In the
claim laid by the Assyrian kings to a world-supremacy,
which, according to their high-flown insolence1 no
people and no god would keep from them or diminish,
the prophets found occasion to extract its legitimate
consequence from the Old Testament idea of God —
viz. that this supremacy must belong much rather to
the king of Israel. The very fact that there stood
opposed to the theocracy this universal monarchy of
Assyria, in part already founded, in part only in pro
spect, elicits the conception and prospect of a universal
Theocracy, taking the place of all other kingdoms, and
gathering all peoples into its unifying embrace.
Henceforward the universalistic idea remained a
moment of significant prominence in Messianic pro
phecy ; it is so with Zephaniah,2 with Habakkuk,3 with
the author of Zech. 12-14,4 with Jeremiah.5 With
1 Isa. 10. 13 f., 36. 18 ff, 37. 11 ff
2 Esp. Zeph. 2. 11, 3. 9.
s Hah. 2. 14. * Zech. 14. 9. 16.
5 Jer. 3. 17, 4. 2, 12. 15 ff, 16. 19 f., 46. 26, 48. 47, 49. 6. 39.
0

210 The Historical Character of Messianic Prophecy :
Ezekiel, on the other hand, while the universalistic idea
is not altogether absent, there is a return of the old
particularism — a circumstance that harmonises with his
Levitico- priestly standpoint, already discussed. — The
most significant advance in the development of
prophecy is, however, marked by the oracles — of the
time of the Exile — of the interest of the heathen in
the Messianic salvation. In the Book Isa. 40-66
this prophecy unfolds the richest and fairest blossoms.
When Israel was actually scattered among the nations,
and godly Israelites, had in their close and constant
contact with the heathen a perpetual witness to the
vanity and contemptible folly of idolatry, and were
made thus only the more conscious of the rich treasure
entrusted to them in the revelation of the only, true
and living God, and of the victorious force of the
truth, not only did the certainty, that at no distant
date all the peoples would acknowledge Jehovah, and
the theocracy be extended over the whole earth, mount
to the highest pitch of confidence ; but there was
awakened and developed the consciousness, that Israel
had been elected by God just for this purpose, that he
might be a light to the heathen by bringing to all
peoples the knowledge of the true God.1 Thus, here
also the new historical circumstances yield a new idea
to Messianic prophecy, whose rich content has, . of
course, been unfolded by none other as by the Great
Unknown ; for his successors, the post-Exilian prophets,
1 Cp. my art. "Der Missionsgedanke im Alten Testament" in Dr.
Warneck's Allg. Missions- Zeitschrift^ 1880, pp. 462 ff.

Its Adaptation to the Times. 211
while they take up the promise of the future conversion
of the heathen, do not develop, as he did, its broad
and deep significance.
A few further references may, in conclusion, be
adduced in proof of the positions just laid down.
Characteristic of the prophets of the Assyrian period,
Isaiah and Micah, is the oft-repeated thought that
only a remnant will turn to Jehovah and participate
in the Messianic salvation. This fundamental thought
of their Messianic prophecy is at the same time one of
the thoughts of God that are prominent in the history
of that period. By the destruction of the kingdom of
the Ten Tribes the people of God were first of all
reduced to the citizens of the kingdom of Judah, and
after the judgment passed upon this kingdom and
executed by the Assyrians, there was left spared but
a remnant — Jerusalem and those who had fled thither.1
— In the Assyrian period, moreover, there comes into
clearest light the truth that not even the greatest world-
power can destroy the little kingdom of God, or frustrate
God's saving purpose concerning Israel, and that, indeed,
the power that makes the attempt only promotes
thereby its own ruin. That the right hand of the Lord
maintains the victory over all enemies, was preached at
that time with special impressiveness by the history
both of the Syro-Ephraimitic war and the hostile ex
pedition of Sennacherib. Hence this truth also forms
a dominant note in the Messianic prophecy of Isaiah,
to whose spiritual vision the impending victory of
Isa-. 37. 4. 32.

212 The Historical Character of Messianic Prophecy : '
Jehovah over the Assyrian world-power appears almost
with the clearness of the actual event. The victorious
power of Jehovah and His anointed is a feature of
his pictures of the perfect time that is everywhere
prominent. It destroys all external enemies and
hardened evil-doers, and thus makes possible the erec
tion of the perfected Kingdom. — The close connexion
between prophecy and history shows itself, again, with
special clearness in the fact that the Messianic prophecy,
which promises the conclusion of an entirely new
covenant between Jehovah and His people, and dis
tinctly and definitely characterises the Theocracy of the
last days as one different from the theocracy that had
existed hitherto} is announced by just the prophet who
could not have failed to become convinced, beyond all
his predecessors, of the inefficiency 'of the Old Testa
ment institutions, and who watched the approach of
the inevitable destruction of the existing theocracy.
Jeremiah's experience led him to the perception that
not even the reformation of the good king Josiah had
been able to prevent the degeneracy of the whole people
that followed upon his death. It had become, fully
apparent that a law that was external to the people
could not keep them permanently true to their God.
The kingship (since the death of Josiah) and the priest
hood had tended rather to the complete' derangement
than to the preservation of the theocracy. And even
genuine prophecy, handicapped by a conflict with a
gang of false prophets, was not in a position to prevent
1 Jer. 31. 29-34; cf. 3. 16 f.

Its Adaptation to the Times. 213
the corruption, although it undoubtedly contained the
force that would in the future renovate the people. It
is at this moment that there flashes across the prophet,
who sees the downfall of the existing theocracy ap
proaching, the insight that the renewed Theocracy, which
is to have an eternal continuance, must be different in
kind from that which has hitherto existed. The Divine
judgments, he is compelled to announce, themselves teach
him a lesson in the truth that, as regards the sub
stantial form of the theocracy, all old things must pass
away and all things become new. Further : During the
Exile the Theocracy, destroyed as to its outward exist
ence, and destitute of any external help or support,
was preserved solely by the living faith and stedfast
faithfulness, maintained even in extreme sufferings, of
those who were the bearers and representatives of the
idea of the Servant of Jehovah — i.e. the ideal corporate
personality of the ministry1 chosen and employed by
Jehovah for the carrying out of His saving purpose.
In correspondence with this is the announcement of
prophecy (Isa. 40—66), that it is only by these means
that the Kingdom can be accomplished. As in the
actual history the victorious power of Jehovah and His
1 This "ministry" is, in the first instance, Israel as the people of
Jeliovah's possession ; but later it appears before the general community
and over against it as the true people of God, consisting of His actual
"servants." In view of the catholic task entrusted to them, and
implied in their election, the people of Israel are the servant of Jehovah
" according to the flesh ; " the true worshippers of Jehovah, taken
separately, in so far as they, like the prophets, are taken by God into
His special service, are the servant of Jehovah "according to the
spirit." The mutual relation of the visible and the invisible Church
forms a perfect parallel.

214 The Historical Character of Messianic Prophecy:
human organs was not externally prominent, but it
was clear rather that, according to the Divine counsel,
the final victory must be won by a constant faithful
ness to God, and a fulfilment even, if need were, in
the midst of suffering, and in apparent external defeat
of the life - task imposed by Him ; so in Messianic
prophecy the idea comes to be emphasised that faith
fulness even unto death and deepest humiliation in
suffering are, for the servant of God, the way to glory.
Finally : In the nature of the case it was precisely the
true worshippers of Jehovah who had mainly to endure
the sufferings of the Exile ; they it was who had to
suffer most from the heathen masters, and who were
besides hated and persecuted by their apostate fellow-
countrymen. These godly persons, in whom the idea
of the servant of God had attained the greatest realisa
tion, were not, of course, guiltless ; they confessed in
the name of the people and in . their own name that
the misery of the Exile was the righteous punishment
of their sins.1 Still they kept hold of their God in
i'aith and loyalty ; so far as they were the bearers of
the idea of the servant of God they had not deserved
the Exile ; and all that they had to suffer, because of
their faithfulness in the service of Jehovah, was a sinless
suffering. They bore above others the effects of the
guilt of Israel's denial of his calling — his rejection of his
ideal. It was laid upon them to bear the heaviest part
of the burden of the judgment upon Israel's faithless
ness. Upon this true people of God in the midst of
1 Isa. 64. 4 ff.

Its Adaptation to the Times. 215
Israel, the (relatively) righteous representatives of the
unrighteous and faithless Israel, God's wrath against
the unfaithfulness of His people was executed. Their
suffering was a substitutionary bearing of Israel's
corporate guilt. It was a guilt - offering for the
defections of their people. And just for these His
servants' sake,1 just because of their enduring faithful
ness and patience shown in this suffering, the faithful
covenant-God could not for ever leave His people in
the power of their enemies. In consideration of the
willing patience with which they endured the execu
tion of His wrath against the sins of the mass of the
people, it behoved Him for their sake to be gracious
to the nation of Israel as a whole. Their substitu
tionary suffering, therefore, presented itself as a chas
tisement which should bring about the salvation of the
entire people. Thus the historical circumstances of
the period of the Exile disclose yet another view of the
saving purpose of God. There is developed the per
ception that Israel and humanity owe the salvation of
the perfect time to the substitutionary punitive suffering
which the innocent servant of God endures in the faithful
discharge of his prophetic vocation for the sins of others,
and which is for himself the God-ordained path to glory.2
We see thus how of necessity history always co
operated with Messianic prophecy, enabling it to bring
to light one moment after another of God's saving
purpose, and to give ever clearer and more definite
deliverances as to the end of the ways of God.
1 Isa. 65. 8. 2 Isa. 53.

216 The Historical Character of Messianic Prophecy.
So much regarding the qualifying and determining
influence of the varying times upon the content of
Messianic prophecy. We are now sufficiently prepared
to determine with some accuracy in a third and last
section the relation of Messianic prophecy to New
Testament fulfilment.

THIED PAET.
THE RELATION OF MESSIANIC PROPHECY TO NEW
TESTAMENT FULFILMENT.
rTIHE tendency of our argument hitherto has been to
-*- expose the error of regarding Messianic prophecy
as consisting of so many isolated products of a creative
spirit of revelation, which, working with wholly imme
diate effect, and refusing to bind itself to any law of
human or historical development, finds a constant
pleasure in the altogether supernatural production of
absolutely new truths. The religion of the Old
Testament covenant-people — a religion founded and
developed by the self-revelation of God — is the mother-
soil on which prophecy has grown, and from which
it has drawn its nourishment. We recognised in
prophecy the new blossoms and fruits which, under
the continuous revealing and enlightening activity of
the Spirit of God, have developed themselves from
germs which the Old Testament religion from the first
kept hid within itself. In these blossoms and fruits,
appearing in course of time, we remarked a rich variety
of form and colour, the reason of which we saw to. be
— apart from the mental peculiarities of the several
prophets — chiefly the qualifying and determining influ-
.217

,218 The Relation of Messianic Prophecy to
ence which historical conditions and circumstances
exercise in every period upon Messianic prophecy. As
the prophet in all cases regards his historical present
in the light thrown back upon it from the end of the
ways of God, so, conversely, he sees the brilliance of
the final salvation only in the scattered and coloured
rays through which alone the atmosphere of his present
suffers it to appear. Similarly, it depends upon the
historical conditions and circumstances of any particular
time which of the ideas contained in the Old Testa
ment religion, and incorporated in the Old Testament
theocracy, is made the starting - point of Messianie
prophecy, or which aspect of the final salvation is
made specially prominent through the unfolding of the
germs of Messianic truth which it contains. And,
finally, the thoughts of God which, as fundamental
principles of the government of the world, or as
moments of God's sovereign plan, principally determine
the course of history in the time of the prophet, are
also the fundamental thoughts which give to Messianic
prophecy its peculiar character and content ; and thus,
in the course of the history of the Old Covenant,
whensoever anything new is about to transpire, there
flash across the minds of the prophets new apprehen
sions regarding the saving purpose of God, and the
ways and means in which it is destined to attain
accomplishment. Before we attempt, on the basis of these results,, to
determine with precision the relation of Messianic pro
phecy to New Testament fulfilment, let us remind

New Testament Fulfilment. 219
ourselves once more of the clear distinction between
the content of prophecy — the sense, i.e., in which the
prophets themselves understood their own utterances,
and wished them to be understood by their contem
poraries, and that ultimate reference to fulfilment through
Christ which is ordained in God's decree, and which
entitles them to a place in the process of historical
revelation. Into the former there must be conveyed
none of the significance which the word of prophecy has
acquired only for us who look back upon the entire
course of the development of Messianic prophecy in
the light of New Testament fulfilment (pp. 6 ff). On
the basis of this clean-cut separation of Old Testament
prophecy from New Testament fulfilment, we have now
to exhibit at once the difference and the harmony
subsisting between the two.
1. That Old Testament prophecy and New Testament
fulfilment are not entirely coextensive terms, that, on
the contrary, the latter transcends the . limit of the
former, is not denied even from the standpoint of the
one-sided supranaturalistic method of Scripture study,
although the inclination to reduce the difference to
the lowest measure possible by reading the soteriology
of the New Testament into the prophecies of the Old,
accords exactly with the essence of this method, and
always makes itself felt more or less in its exegesis.
Still this standpoint always insists upon this at least :
that prophecy should be completely covered by the
fulfilment. The particular Messianic announcements,
it is argued, all indeed bear in themselves the mark

220 The Relation of Messianic Prophecy to
of one-sidedness, because in every case there is shown
to the vision of the prophet only the truth which is
adapted to and capable of affecting the crisis of the
particular time, and his prophecy is invariably but the
correct expression of what he has seen. The Messianic
prophecies are therefore, it is urged, fragments ; but
these fragments must admit of being pieced together
in a uniform well -fitted mosaic, so as to form an
essentially complete picture of the Messianic salvation
and the manner of its accomplishment. The task of
construction is, moreover, very considerably lightened
by the fact that the record of the fulfilment supplies
us with the clue that enables us to determine with
certainty the place of each separate piece. There may
be vacant' spaces here and there in the prophetic
picture ; it may not be altogether sufficient to repre
sent the entire fulness and glory of the New Testament
salvation. But there cannot be any feature in the
prophecies to which there is not some corresponding
feature in the fulfilment. To suppose otherwise is to
suppose that the prophets did not really speak God's
word, did not describe only what God's Spirit granted
them to see of the future salvation. This is in the
main Hengstenberg's view of the relation of prophecy
to fulfilment, and it leads inevitably to that spirit
ualistic evaporising of the concrete, historical, and
specifically Old Testament features in the Messianic1
prophecies of whose illegitimacy we have already led
satisfactory proof 1 (pp. 150 ff.). On the basis of
1 Cp. Hengstenberg's Christologie, iii. 2, pp. 185 ff.

New Testament Fulfilment. 221
our preceding argument we must declare this view
untenable, and the attempt to piece together in one
complete picture, without qualification, all the indi
vidual features of Messianic prophecy, and to find in
Christ and His Kingdom the fulfilment of every
individual feature, we must pronounce at once un
warrantable and impracticable. Understood in their
true historic sense, the individual Messianic prophecies
are the various forms in which in the course of its
development, and under varying historical circum
stances, the Messianic idea asserted itself. They ought
not to be compared to the fragments of a picture — a
figure that could originate only at the lifeless, external,
mechanical point of view of a one - sided super-
naturalism. They should be compared rather to the
different forms of a living organism, which advances
through a series of phases of development. Just as, in
the course of its development, individual leaves fall
from a plant, and are replaced by new ones ; as in the
development of the brute - organism every organ
assumes just the form in which at that particular
stage of development it can best fulfil its intended
purpose, — so it is with Messianic prophecy. Its con
crete significance, its special bearing' on the historical
circumstances of the time of its origin, is of so great
importance at the time of its announcement that,
apart from it, it would be able only very imperfectly,
if at all, to fulfil its destination. But this importance
is transitory ; it is limited to the time during which
the circumstances in question continue, and attaches

222 The Relation of Messianic Prophecy to
to the times-borrowed features of the prophecy for only
so long as the historical stage of development, to which
the prophecy belongs, lasts. By the time the histori
cal circumstances were substantially altered, those
elements of the prophecy had, at least in part and as a
rule, found their relative times-adapted fulfilment, and
so far as this was not the case they could never after
wards be fulfilled in the sense which they had for the
prophet and his contemporaries. Such a fulfilment
would have been possible only on the supposition that
the Messianic salvation had been really intended in
the counsel of God to appear so soon as the prophets
anticipated, i.e. actually in the time during which the
historical circumstances of the time in which the
prophecy originated, continued for the main part
unaltered. A later time lacked the conditions of a
fulfilment corresponding to their historical sense.
Hence, so soon as the historical circumstances have
become substantially altered, Messianic prophecy drops
these concrete features, — whether they have been
relatively fulfilled or not, — and something altogether
new takes the place of the old that has been outlived,
and has lost its full significance and effective force.
Thus a very considerable portion — as regards bulk — ¦
of the content of the Messianic prophecies remains
outside, the sphere of New Testament fulfilment, either
through its having already found its relative times-
adapted fulfilment before the " fulness of time," or
through its remaining altogether unfulfilled.
But does not the admission that a portion- of

New Testament Fulfilment. 223
prophecy remains thus unfulfilled necessarily present
itself in a somewhat serious light ? Announcements
which are not confirmed by fulfilment seem in general
hardly entitled to be ranked with truth that rests on
revelation, but rather to be mere human thoughts and
words that have originated in the prophet's own spirit,1
and have commingled with what really proceeds from
Divine revelation. The fulfilment of prophecies
depends, of course, as a rule upon further conditions,
expressed or tacitly assumed, which belong to the
sphere of human freedom, and hence many a prophecy,
though announced in the Spirit of Cod, may remain
unfulfilled.2 But it can never be explained in this
way alone, how a portion of the content' of prophecy
should remain thus unfulfilled. No one can seriously
pretend that if Israel had only exhibited a perfect
faithfulness to his God it would have been possible, in
every instance, for the Messianic salvation to appear
so soon as, and precisely in the manner in which, the
prophets announced; and yet only thus could all the
times - borrowed elements of Messianic prophecy have
1 Millibbam (cp. sup. pp. 16 ff).
2 Cp. on this Bertheau in the Jahrb. f. D. Th. iv. 334-353, who,
however, goes too far in supposing that every case of the non-fulfilment
of prophecy can be explained in this way, and whose argument seems
in some places almost to assume that tliere was nothing unconditioned
or unalterably stable in the purpose of God, and in particular that the
time of the fulfilment of the promise was not predetermined in His
eternal counsel ; it appears, however, from his later expositions (e.g.
pp. 655 f. ) that this is not really his meaning. The remarks of
H. Schitltz (in loc. cit. ii. pp. 57 ff, 2nd ed. pp. 242 ff), both on the
conditionedness of prophecy and on the limits of this conditionedness
and alterableness, are much to the point.

224 The Relation of Messianic Prophecy to
been fulfilled. Its partial non-fulfilment has therefore
an additional reason in a region above that in which
the promise is conditioned by the conduct of men —
that, viz., of the eternal counsel of God. Because the
salvation was designed to appear only when the time
was fulfilled, it was possible that the content of
prophecy should be partially unfulfilled. But in that
case do not the scruples we feel at the suggestion of
a non-fulfilment of prophecy seem justified ? Do not
the announcements which fail to harmonise with the
purpose that God has actually conceived and carried
out appear only as a disturbing element, which in
consequence of the limits 1 imposed upon his prospect,
the prophet has mixed up with the announcement of
what the Spirit had revealed to him of the counsel of
God? Such, indeed, would necessarily be our verdict if to
the concrete historical features of the Messianic pro
phecies there belonged only the sense that is limited
to the time of their origin. Over and above this sense,
however, they have a permanent significance, relating
them to the New Covenant, and finding in the latter
its realisation.
For they embody, after all, moments of the Messianic
idea itself, which is through them concretely applied
to the circumstances of a definite time. What is
passing encloses thus necessarily also something that
is permanent ; in the husk of the historical present
there is an ideal kernel of the eternal thoughts of God,
1Cp. pp. 139 ff. 146 ff. 122 ff.

New Testament Fulfilment. 225
and when in the later development of Messianic pro
phecy the husk is stripped off, the kernel is not there
fore surrendered ; it reappears as a constituent of later
prophecy, but, of course, metamorphosed and invested
with a new form adapted to its altered circumstances,
which latter also, when its term has expired, gives
place to some other times -adapted investiture. A
sifting process is thus accomplished, in the course of
the development of Messianic prophecy, upon the
contents of the individual prophecies, the result of
which is to show what portion of them is of substan
tial and permanent import as revealing the Divine
purpose regarding, the final salvation, and what, on the
contrary, has only an accidental and passing signifi
cance as being merely the envelope in which the
relative moments of this purpose had to be conveyed
to the consciousness and lively perception of the pro
phet and his contemporaries. The former portion is
the substance-proper of the revelation that is intended
for all times. The latter, on the other hand, is either
only the announcement of such moments of the Divine
purpose as relate to individual stations of the way to
the goal of the final salvation, or, at best, only some
temporary means or channel of revelation ; hence its
partial non-fulfilment need be no occasion of stumbling,
nor does it in the least degree mark it as a disturbing
element, mixed up with the genuine oracles of revela
tion by the prophet himself without the connivance of
the Spirit.
As regards their essential and permanent substance,*

2.2 6 The Relation of Messianic Prophecy to
individual prophecies actually stand in a complementary
relation to one another. For the_ historical circum
stances of any particular time have always, in greater
or less degree, their, peculiar stamp — they have always,
so to speak, their specialties, which never exactly re
peat themselves in any later time. Hence in the
times -features of the individual prophecies there are
always represented some moments or other of the
Divine purpose of salvation which no longer appear
in the later prophecies, or, at the least, some aspect of
these moments is illumined which the historical circum
stances of later times do not offer any opportunity of
again bringing to light. Thus, in the application
necessarily made of it in course of time to a great
variety of different historical circumstances, the Messi
anic idea unfolds the wealth of its content, and every
individual prophecy contributes its part to the work
of bringing this content completely into view.
As regards, further, their ideal and permanent sub
stance, even the times-features of the Messianic pro
phecies are referable to Christ and His kingdom ; and,
indeed, it is only in so far as. they relate to Him that
the oft-repeated saying of Christ is applicable to them :
" dei plerothinai pdnta ta gegrammdna perl emou'.'1
The eternal thoughts of God that form their kernel,
attained necessarily in the New Covenant a full accom
plishment in Christ, and through Him, consequently,
they find the fulfilment best suited to their deepest,
1 "It is necessary that all things written concerning me should' be
ulnlled." .";

New Testament Fulfilment, 227
their ideal substance, whereas the times-fulfilment, — if
in the history of the Old Covenant there have been
such, — while it corresponds, indeed, more precisely
with the literal and historical sense of the words, i.e.
with the concrete form which the eternal thoughts of
God, in their application to definite historical circum
stances, have received in these prophecies, presents
itself, nevertheless, only as an imperfect and temporary
accomplishment of the kernel-thoughts. It is clear
from this that, just in consequence of the times-colour
ing of all Messianic prophecies, the typico-Messianic
element forms a considerable portion of their content,
and thus the assertion that a typico-Messianic character
is more or less peculiar to them all, is well founded.
These remarks seem to us a sufficient acknowledg
ment of the measure of truth contained in the view of
Hengstenberg criticised above, and in particular in his
spiritualising exegesis of the prophecies. It is true
that when our object is to exhibit that ultimate refer
ence of the Messianic prophecies to the fulfilment in
Christ which gives them their place in the process of
historical revelation, only the idea contained in the
times -borrowed features is of essential importance,
inaccurate as it is to speak of the times -form, in
which the idea is expressed, as if it were a mere
figure. Hengstenberg's mistake, momentous as of
course it is, consists, in fact, solely in his failure to
distinguish sufficiently between the content proper of
the prophecies and that God-intended and God-ordained
reference to their ultimate fulfilment which is recog-

228 The Relation of Messianic Prophecy to
nisable only in the later progress of the history of
revelation and salvation, and in his misapprehension
of the significance of their historical sense.1
2. Similar to the case of the times-borrowed ele
ments of Messianic prophecy is that of \ts specifically
Old Testament features. These grow from the soil of
the Old Testament religion. The prophets' knowledge
of the Divine thoughts of salvation, which are to take
effect in the New Covenant, is, in harmony with the
fact of its psychologically mediated origin, developed
i'rom Old Testament conceptions ; they can therefore
announce these thoughts only as they are apprehensible
from the Old Testament standpoint. In particular,
the prophet's conception of the perfected Kingdom can
never wholly disentangle itself from his view of the
existing theocracy ; every prophet will to a certain
extent conceive and present the completion of the
Kingdom of God as merely the perfecting and the
glorifying of the existing theocracy, and hence every
prophecy will have to a certain extent a specifically
Old Testament colouring, betraying the soil from which
it has sprung.2 Equally with the times-features these
specifically Old Testament elements are for the pro
phetic consciousness no mere figures; they are rather
the envisaging forms under which it possesses the know
ledge of the saving thoughts. It is true that even the
prophet himself has in many cases a more or less clear
1 Cp. p. 152, note.
2 Cp. Oehler, art. "Weissagung," in Herzog's Reakncyti. xvii.
655, and Theologie des Alten Testamentes, ii. § 216.

New Testament Fulfilment. 229
consciousness of the fact that these envisaging forms
are inadequate to express the . saving thoughts which
they invest; hence not unfrequently there appear,
borrowed from the conception of the existing theocracy,
features which the prophets could not conceivably
mean to be understood literally, in their use of which
they are manifestly concerned much rather with the
idea than with the envisaging form, which latter,
indeed, seems to pass completely over into the sphere
of conscious symbolism. Think, for example, of the
announcement that all the heathen who survive the
judgment will come year by year to Jerusalem to cele
brate the Feast of Tabernacles} or that " all flesh " will
make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem every Sabbath and
every new moon? Even in delineations of the perfected
Kingdom that keep themselves in other respects within
the limits of Old Testament conceptions, the same
transition is sometimes observable in individual fea
tures, yet not to such an extent as to warrant the whole
being taken allegorically. Thus, e.g., Ezekiel, in the
description of the new theocracy in the famous pro
phecy of the stream proceeding from the dwelling-place
of God and transforming the holy land into paradise,
allows the idea to emerge most unmistakably from its
Old Testament investiture, and makes the latter appear
only as its symbolic veil. — Nevertheless, as a rule, the
prophet cannot consciously distinguish between the Old
Testament envisaging form and the saving thoughts of
God which it contains ; he grasps the latter only in the
1 Zech. 3 4. 16 ff. * Isa. 66. 23.

230 The Relation of Messianic Prophecy to
envelope of the former, and is, in general, not in a
position to dispense with the Old Testament envelopes.1
But what he is personally unable to accomplish, accom
plishes itself, for the most part, in the course of the
total development of Old Testament prophecy, for at
its culminating points the apprehension of the saving
thoughts of God tends clearly to free itself from the
limitations of Old Testament conceptions. And indeed,
in general, the prophecy that is later in point of time
is also the prophecy that is more developed and that
brings to clearer and more perfect light the saving
purpose of God and the true character, of the perfected
Kingdom. On the whole, the .kernel of the eternal
thoughts of God tends, in the Messianic prophecies of
the later prophets, more and more to . shine through
and discard the Old Testament veils. While, e.g., the
oldest Messianic prophecy still preserves, even in the
delineation of the perfected Kingdom, the national
exclusiveness of the existing theocracy, this exclusive
ness has already disappeared in the prophets of the
Assyrian period, who represent the Kingdom as ex
tending over the whole earth and embracing all
peoples.2 But especially in Jeremiah and Deutero-
Isaiah Messianic prophecy reaches a pitch of develop
ment in which the far-reaching difference between the
Old Testament economy and that of the New Covenant
is clearly recognised and expressed. — Still, the validity^
1 Cp., on the above propositions, the pertinent remarks of Tholuck
in Die, Propheten und ihre Weissagungen, pp. 149-156.
2 Cp. pp. 205 ff.

New Testament Fulfilment. 231
of this canon is but a conditioned and limited validity ;
for, on the one hand, the degree in which the Messianic
apprehensions remain envisaged in specifically Old
Testament forms, depends to a considerable extent
upon the standpoint of the particular prophet, as we
see instanced in the case of Ezekiel, who, though the
contemporary of Jeremiah, has, least of all, been able
to figure to himself the people of God of the future
time apart from the institutions and ordinances
of the Old Testament theocracy ;x and, on the other
hand, in the course of historical development relapses
constantly occur after the attainment of culminat
ing points, as is exemplified in the fact that in
the post -Exilian time the limitation of Messianic
apprehension to Old Testament forms becomes again
much greater than with Jeremiah and Deutero-Isaiah.
These heights of development, however, at which
Messianic prophecy, whether as a whole or in some of
its individual utterances, approximates most closely to
New Testament assurance, involuntarily reveal them
selves clearly and definitely to the eye of one who
lives in the time of fulfilment. From them as stand
points, the essential oneness of a whole of Messianic
prophecy that yet has been developed through various
historical stages is seen to lie ready for review.
Through the light falling from them upon the lower
stages, prophecy itself reveals the note of transiency
which attaches to many of its Old Testament envelopes
of the Divine thoughts of salvation. It shows that
1 Cp. pp. 129 ff.

232 The Relation of Messianic Prophecy to
these envisaging forms, like the times^features, are not
of the substance of revelation; but are merely temporary
— sometimes even merely individual — means of revela
tion, which are able to claim a permanent significance
only in virtue of their typico-symbolical character.
If, e.g., according to Ezekiel, animal sacrifices, includ-*
ing even sin- and guilt-offerings, are still to be offered
in the perfected Kingdom,1 Hosea and Isaiah have
already taught us to see in this something that belongs
merely to the Old Testament envelopes of the prophetic
word, the former, by his representation :of the repentant
'people as vowing, not animal sacrifices, but the " calves
•of our lips," 2 i.e. praise to God as thanksgiving for His
mercies ; the latter, by his omitting — Isa. 19. 21 apart
— all mention either of sacrificial ritual or of priest
hood in connexion with the people of God of the
Messianic time.
If, according to Ezekiel, the difference between
priests and laity is to continue even in the Messianic
time, or be made even more rigid than formerly,3 and
the people to be instructed,, as formerly, by the priests
in the ceremonial law,4 prophecies like that of Jere
miah, that in the New Covenant all will have the same
access to God and the same knowledge of Him,8 or
that of Deutero-Isaiah, that all Israel will be a nation
of priests, and will be taught in all his members by
Jehovah Himself,6 tend to place such utterances in the
1 Ezek. 40. 39, 42. 13, 44. 29, 46. 20. 2 Hos. 14. 2.
3 Ezek. 44. 19. * Ib. ver. 23. 5 Jer. 31. 34.
0 Isa. 61. 6, 66. 21, 54. 13.

New Testament Fulfilment, 233
light of an Old Testament element in the prophecy of
Ezekiel, to which only an individual importance can
be attached. And if Ezekiel describes with the utmost
minuteness the new temple which is to be erected in
Jerusalem, and in' which God will dwell in the midst of
His people ; if,' similarly, post-Exilian prophecy lays the
greatest stress upon an adornment of the temple that
will make it a worthy dwelling-place of God, because
it also conceives the gracious presence of God among
His people as associated even in the perfect time with
the visible sanctuary, — -we must put side by side with
such utterances the announcement of Jeremiah, that in
the Messianic kingdom there will no longer be an ark
of the covenant or an inaccessible Holy of holies, for
the entire holy city will be the throne of Jehovah, and
all peoples will assemble thither as to the place where
God reveals Himself,1 — an announcement in the light
of which the other conception must appear also as
an Old Testament husk, which the more developed
Messianic prophecy has already stripped off as but
the vesture of the saving thoughts of God.
Thus by the criticism which Old Testament pro
phecy, considered as a whole, passes upon the details
of its own content there are separated from each other,
also as regards a great number of the specifically Old
Testament features of prophecy, the transient envisaging
forms, and the saving thoughts which they enclose ;
and it goes without saying that the former must lie
outside the sphere of New Testament fulfilment, while
1 Jer. . 16 f.

234 The Relation of Messianic Prophecy to
the latter attain accomplishment in the New Covenant.
Hence the sphere of the typico-Messianic, the sphere,
i.e., of the prophecies which do not find fulfilment in
Christ in their historic sense, but only in their ideal
substance, embraces, as Old Testament prophecy itself
teaches, a large portion of its peculiarly Old Testament
theocratic conceptions.1
3. But can a separation between the Divine saving
thoughts and their transient envisaging forms, which
takes place thus during the actual historical develop
ment of revelation, be said to have been completed
within the era of the Old Covenant, — say with the,
extinction of prophecy ? Must we not from the first
take for granted that in general the Divine saving
thoughts have emerged into full light only through
their realisation in actual fact, and that hence the
complete discarding of the Old Testament husks, which
invest them in Messianic prophecy, cannot have hap
pened sooner ? Such indeed is the fact. Even at its
highest pitches of development Messianic prophecy
could not rid itself entirely of specifically Old Testa
ment conceptions. Some pervade the entire scheme
of prophecy, and present, themselves only in the light
of New Testament fulfilment as merely symbolico-
typical husks of ideas, whose accomplishment was
1 Cp. Oehler, art. " Weissagung," p. 656 : " It is not the conscious
ness of the individual prophet, but the Spirit of revelation Himself,
who already within the Old Testament at each higher stage of prophecy
strips off the temporary form adhering to the prophecy of the earlier
stage, until in the fulfilment the full extent of the symbolic investi
ture comes to be recognised." Cp. Theologie des Alten Testamentes,
ii. § 216.

New Testament Fulfilment. 235
decreed in God's saving purpose. Of this nature is
the conception that Jerusalem, the city which Jehovah
had chosen to place His name there, would also in the
perfect time be the place of God's revealing and
gracious presence on earth, and as such the centre of
the Kingdom ; there God will dwell in the midst of
His people ; thence also He exercises the sovereignty
over His Kingdom, which embraces all lands ; there
also He becomes manifest to the heathen, and there
all peoples worship Him. Even in the announcement
that God's revealing presence will no longer be tied to
the ark of the covenant or the inaccessible Holy of
holies,1 Jeremiah holds fast by this conception ; it
dominates similarly all the other Messianic prophecies
of the Old Testament, and betrays its influence, now
in wider, now in narrower compass, in the concrete
details of the delineated picture of the Messianic
theocracy. And certainly Jerusalem, as the place where the
Mediator of the New Covenant offered His all-sufficient,
eternally-availing sacrifice, where by His resurrection
He showed Himself the Prince of life, where the Holy
Spirit was poured out upon the disciples, became, even
in the history of the fulfilment, the principal scene of
the Divine, revelations and deeds which have accom
plished the final salvation ; as such it remains in a
ertain sense, even for the New Testament Theocracy,
a centre, whither turn all eyes that are directed to
God's saving revelation in the Son. So far Jerusalem's
1 Jer. 3. 16 f.

236 The Relation of Messianic Prophecy to
election came to its rights even in the New Testament
fulfilment; so far also the conception of its centrality
that pervades Old Testament prophecy is signally
attested as conformable to the decree of God. But
only so far ; neither in Jerusalem nor in any other
place on earth has the Kingdom of Christ, which is
" not of this world," an external visible centre, as the
theocracy of the Old Testament had ; with Christ there
dawned a time in which Jerusalem, as well as Mount
Gerizim, loses its character of. eminence as a holy place,
— the time of a worship of God in spirit and truth,1
freed from all limitation as to place, time, and external
ceremony. The express testimony of Christ, and the
actual character of His Kingdom permit us to recog
nise in the conception that Jerusalem should be
permanently the place of Jehovah's revelation and
worship, merely an Old Testament form of envisage-
ment of which Messianic prophecy was unable to rid
itself — an inability resulting from the fact that to the
last it held to the conception of a theocracy confined to
the natural 2 terrestrial world, whereof anon. — Hence the
conception of Jerusalem as the '' city of God " receives
in the New Testament also a symbolico-typical signi
ficance. Even Jewish theology had distinguished
the upper,3 other-world, heavenly Jerusalem, from the
lower i Jerusalem, which is but its earthly image ; and
Philo's speculative idealism had found in Jerusalem,
the city of God, a figure of the world as the place
1 John 4. 23 f. 2 [Diesseitig.— Tr.]
1 Y^rushdlayim shcl-ma'aldh. 4 Y"rushalayim shel-mattah.

New Testament Fulfilment. 237
of God's abode and revelation, or of the soul of
the wise man, in whom God dwells.1 In the same
way the New Testament opposes to the earthly Jeru
salem its antitype, the heavenly, expressing thus sym
bolically the contrast between the Old Testament
theocracy (the earthly Jerusalem) and the Kingdom of
Christ (the heavenly Jerusalem), which belongs essen
tially to the supersensuous heavenly world, and is the
sphere of the substantial presence of God and of full
communion with Him, and conceiving at the same time
of the latter as already existing on earth in the Church,
though its perfect form is meanwhile only in heaven,
and descends thence to the earth only at the second
coming of Christ.2 This heavenly Jerusalem takes, in
the New Covenant, the place of the earthly, which
is only its shadow ; hence also, the New Testament
writers referred the Old Testament prophecies of the
glorifying of Jerusalem as the place of God's abode and
revelation in the Messianic kingdom — with elimina
tion of the peculiarly Old Testament elements — to this
1 Cp. my Lehrbegriff des Hebraerbriefes, pp. 253 f.
2 And indeed the "New Jerusalem" of the Apocalypse (Rev. 3. 12,
21. 2ff. 10 ff.), intimately allied to the phrase of the Jewish theology,
is the Kingdom of Christ in its other-world accomplishment, in which it
exists at present only in heaven, to lower itself thence to earth not sooner
than the Parousia. In the Epistle to the Hebrews, on the other hand
(Heb. 11. 10. 16, 12. 22, 13. 14),"'the heavenly Jerusalem" denotes
the Kmgdom of Christ that is indeed complete only in heaven (so
far therefore a future kingdom), and yet is already erected even in this
world, affording to believers a means of intercourse with the super
sensible heavenly world, and of enjoying its goods (cp. my Lehrbegriff
des Hebraerbriefes, pp. 117 ff.). The "Jerusalem which is above" of
the Apostle' Paul (Gal. 4. 26 ; cp. Phil. 3. 20) has essentially the same
significance,.

238 The Relation of Messianic Prophecy to
heavenly Jerusalem, in other words, to the Kingdom of
Christ1 and found foretold in them its future erection
in glorious accomplishment at the time of the Parousia.
This is seen most clearly in those numerous passages of
the Apocalypse where the features descriptive of the
New Jerusalem are borrowed from the last chapters of
Ezekiel and from Deutero-Isaiah.
Can the case be otherwise with another conception
which also pervades all Old Testament prophecy —
the conception, viz., that Israel, as Jehovah's chosen
and peculiar people, will continue to be, even in the
last time and with conservation of his national idiosyn-
cracy, the kernel of the people of God, assuming, as a
nation, a position of royalty in the Messianic kingdom,
and fulfilling the priestly function of mediator between
God and the rest of humanity ? As is well known, a
view, which was stoutly maintained by Bengel and his
school, — though its advocates in former centuries were
but few and far between, — has found of late much
acceptance in England and Germany, being represented,,
among others, by such considerable theologians as Mich.
BaumGarten, J. T. Beck, Auberlen, von Hofmann,
Delitzsch, and Stier, to the effect that when the "times
of the Gentiles " 2 have expired, the prophecies, implied
in such announcements, will find a literal fulfilment
in Israel as a nation. Peculiar once and for ever, it is
urged, to the people of Israel in virtue of their election,
is the calling, which assigns them their place in the
history of salvation, as the recipients and mediators
1 Cp. e.g. the citation iu Gal. 4. 27. 2 Kairol ethndn.

New Testament Fulfilment. 239
of Divine revelation, and constitutes them a royal,
priestly people, whose part it is to mediate the rela
tions of the rest of humanity to God. Granted that
Israel was the recipient of the Divine revelations in
the time of the Old Covenant, and that his calling
and destination were fulfilled through Christ and His
apostles, who indeed were a company of Israelites, this
does not imply that the purposes of God in the election
of Israel have been fully accomplished, or that the
promises given to Israel, that he should in the future
attain holiness as a people, and exercise his priestly
vocation on behalf of all peoples, have been fulfilled.
His vocation and his promises continue even in the
time of the New Covenant, and that in spite of his
obstinate refusal of God's revelation in His Son, and
his consequent temporary rejection, for " the gifts and
calling of God are without repentance," x and these
promises concern the last time, in which the Kingdom
of God will assume its full glory. After the present
period of the Kingdom of God, after the times of the
Gentile Christian Church, when the kingdom of the
Millennium shall have been erected, repentant Israel,
gathered from the dispersion to the Holy Land, will
appear at the head of humanity. Then will be heard
again the voice of revelation, dumb since the time of
Israel's rejection ; then will the priestly kingdom of the
people of Israel be upon earth what the glorified priest-
kings are in heaven ; then only does Israel as a people
fulfil his destination, and participate in the glory
Rom. 11. 29.

240. The Relation of Messianic Prophecy to
promised to him.1 It is, further, only in the line of
logical sequence that individual advocates of this view
should expect not only the gathering of dispersed
Israel into the land of Canaan, and the restoration of
Jerusalem as the capital of the theocracy, but also the
erection of the temple described by Ezekiel, and the
revival of the ceremonial and civil law of Moses in the
cultus and constitution of the Millennial kingdom.2
This rendering of Old Testament prophecy has been
contrasted favourably with the spiritualising typico-
allegorical mode of exegesis that has prevailed in the
Church, and passed as orthodox since the third century
as marking a very substantial progress made in modern
times in the understanding of the Divine prophetic
word — a progress through which exegesis for the first
time does justice to the " realism of Scripture " as well
as to the true historical sense of the prophecies. — Such
praise, however, we must take leave to a certain extent
to call in question. The abandonment of the tradi
tional spiritualising exegesis of the Church and the
approximation to the strictly historical method of
interpretation, must be allowed to mark real progress.
When, however, the historical sense, gained by. this
1 Cp. e.g. Auberlen, Der Prophet Daniel und die Offenbarung
Johannis, 2nd ed. pp. 387 ff. ; also his Abhandlung ilber die messi-
anischen Weissagungen der mosaischen Zeit in den Jahrbb. f. D. Theol.
1858, Hft. iv. especially pp. 791, 801 ff, 834 ff., and Hofmamj's
Schriflbeweis, vol. ii. pt. 2, pp. 74 ff. (1st ed.).
2 So, e.g., J. J. Hess in his Briefe iiber die Offenbarung Johannes,
pp. 130 ff. ; but also Afberlen, Der Prophet Daniel, p. 401, and
Hofmann in loc. cit, p, 538, though his conception is less literal, and
M. Batjmgarten in the article "Ezechiel " in Herzog's Real-Encyklo
pddie (1st ed.) iv. pp. 303 f. •

New Testament Fulfilment. 241
method, is, without distinction of the temporary or
individual from the ideal or eternal elements, hastily
assumed to be part of the substance of the prophecy,
and is considered a literal announcement of the Divine
decrees bearing on the final completion of the theo
cracy, I can see in this, not progress, but only retro
gression — and Judaistic error1 It is an exaggeration of
the importance of the historical sense due to the same
one-sided supernaturalism in the mode of viewing prophecy
noticeable in the unhistorical spiritualising method of
the elder orthodoxy; hence also it shares with the
latter the erroneous assumption that Old Testament
prophecy must be completely covered by a New
Testament fulfilment, in which the content of every
individual feature will be fully represented. It is
chargeable, moreover, with the same mistaken com
mingling of Old and New Testament elements, only
with the difference that, whereas the old orthodoxy
introduces New Testament perceptions into the Old
Testament, this new supernaturalism takes over into
the economy of the New Covenant what belongs pro
perly to that of the Old.
We cannot offer here a detailed vindication of this
criticism. This is hardly necessary in any case, as the
refutation of the assumptions, on which the view
criticised rests, has already, in great part, been ac
complished in our previous expositions of the histori
cal character of the Messianic prophecies. We shall
present only some general points of view from which
1 With this agrees Kuper's verdict in loc. cit. pp. 480, 486.
Q

242 The Relation of Messianic Prophecy to
its untenableness is easily recognisable,1 and confine
ourselves, in what remains, to a positive exhibition of
the true state of the case.
It is, in the first place, absolutely impossible to work
out the view in question in detail with even a small
measure of logical sequence. There are obviously many
of the Old Testament elements contained in prophecy
which not even the most decided advocates of this
view can assume will be fulfilled in the same way with
others, i.e. according to their full historical sense, in
reference to which rather they are compelled to have
resort to the old allegorico-typical mode of exposition.
We refer, by way of example, to the emphatic asser
tion of the difference between priests and laity, and of
the privilege of the posterity of Zadok, as well as to
the mention of sin- and guilt-offerings, and, in general,
of animal sacrifice in the Messianic prophecy of Ezekiel.
To apply here the literalistic method would involve a
flat contradiction, not only of the clearest testimonies
of the New Testament, but also of the Messianic
prophecy of the Old Covenant itself ; it is thus a case
in which we must call to our aid some kind of typico-
allegorical explanation. The inconsistency, however,
of referring such features to the realm of allegory,
while claiming a literal interpretation for most of the
others, is assuredly not chargeable to Ezekiel, but to
1 We must not, however, omit most cordially to recommend the
advocates of the view to a fresh, candid, and thorough consideration of
the excellent discussions of Bertheau, "Die alttestamentliche Weissa
gung von Israels Reichsherrlichkeit in seinem Lande," in the Jahrbb.
f. D. Theol. 1859, pp. 314 ff. and 595 ff. and 1860, pp. 436 ff.

New Testament Fulfilment. 243
the expositor, who brings with him a false " principal
key to the understanding of the prophetic word." 1 But
once more : BERTHEAU has given deserved prominence
to the fact that the announcement of the "imperial
glory of Israel " 2 stands in the individual prophecies,
almost throughout, in the closest connexion with that
portion of their contents which relates to the historical
circumstances of the time of their utterance, and that
therefore the view, which expects its perfectly literal
future fulfilment, can be logically carried out only upon
the assumption of the recurrence of all these historical
circumstances.3 As this is essentially impossible, —
inasmuch as the historical circumstances of one time
exclude those of another, — and as none may venture
upon the romantic assumption that, before the expected
restitution of the kingdom of Israel, the empires of
Assyria, and Babylonia — not to speak of the Philis
tines, the Edomites, the Moabites, and the Ammonites,
— will again step upon the stage of universal history,
as also that the disruption between the kingdom of
Judah and that of the Ten Tribes will repeat itself in
order to make its removal possible, it must be admitted
that here also we cannot get beyond the traditional
typico - allegorical mode of exposition. But what a
net of inconsequence is here for the literalistic view !
We are to take literally the announcement that the
people of Israel will be assembled in the land of
1 Words of Auberlen, Der Prophet Daniel, p. 388.
2 [Part of the title of the work cited above. — Tr.]
3 Cp. Bertheau in loc. cit. 1859, pp. 356 f., 363.

244 The Relation of Messianic Prophecy to
Canaan, and form there, under the rule of the Son of
David, a powerful flourishing State in the centre of the
Kingdom of God upon earth ; but we are not to take
literally the announcements annexed to it, that they
will reduce to subjection the remnant of Edom, the
Philistines, Ammonites, and Moabites.1 When Isaiah
depicts the theocracy of the perfect time as a universal
theocracy, embracing all the then known world, and
consisting of three kingdoms, which, while independ
ent of one another, yet enjoy peaceful mutual inter
course, and are all alike the property and the servants
of Jehovah, Israel, as the chiefly blessed, aboriginal
land of Jehovah, in the centre, Assyria and Egypt on
its two respective sides,2 we are to understand that
what is said of Israel is meant literally, and will be
exactly so fulfilled, but not what relates to Assyria
and Egypt ; in general, whenever Israel is mentioned,
we are to understand the Israelitish nation ; so soon,
however, as the prophetic word names other peoples, it
does not mean to designate the respective historical
nationalities, but only to typify the world-kingdoms,
which stand opposed to the theocracy ! Thus does
this literalistic conception of prophecy fail to extricate
itself from the errors of the traditional typico-allegorical
mode of interpretation, which it would fain improve,
and is, with its half-measures and its inconsequence,
only a degree more untenable than the latter.
Apparent also from the remarks just made is the
very serious degree in which this literalistic theory
1 Cp. e.g. Amos 9. 12, Isa. 11. 14. 2 Isa. 19. 23 ff.

New Testament Fulfilment. 245
fails to recognise the true historical character of pro
phecy. Very specially it fails to apprehend how for
the prophets and their contemporaries even the nearly
impending future is wholly transfigured by the light
which falls upon it from the end of the ways of God,
and how therefore the immediately impending times
of salvation and grace are frequently depicted, as if
their dawn were already the dawn of the perfect time.1
A genuinely historical view of prophecy has, of course,
in such cases to distinguish between an announcement
which, under certain definite historical circumstances,
peculiar to a particular time, places within a more or
less near prospect deeds of grace and redemption to
be wrought by God for His people Israel, and the ideal
setting and colouring which this announcement derives
from the fact that, in the consciousness of the prophet,
the salvation promised to Israel and the salvation of
the perfect time are merged together. To such a view,
therefore, it will seem no more than natural that the
actual times-fulfilment of the promise made to Israel
should be only a relative fulfilment, and one that,
at parts, necessarily falls considerably short both in
internal significance and external glory of the picture
projected by prophecy, and it will expect for the latter
such higher and fuller accomplishment as will corre
spond to its ideal substance, and be characteristic of
the last times. But it will never be able to regard
this ultimate fulfilment as one that will, even in
external respects, perfectly correspond with the literal
1 Cp. pp. 152 f.

246 The Relation of Messianic Prophecy to
¦4
complex of the phrases used by prophecy ; nor will it
reckon as part of the ideal substance of prophecy
those concrete elements which relate to the immediate
fulfilment supplied by the subsequent history of Israel,
as if these were to enjoy another and more brilliant
fulfilment ; nor, similarly, will it take leave to assume
that the ideal substance of prophecy has a special
validity for Israel, as if its proper fulfilment lay in
the sphere of that nationality.
It is therefore to mistake the historical character
of prophecy, and to ignore the lesson taught by the
wider course of the history of the Kingdom of God as
to the difference between the properly eschatological and
the merely times-elements in the content of prophecy,
to say : What was prophesied of Israel's conversion
and glorious restitution to the promised land, was only
very imperfectly fulfilled in the return from the Baby
lonian exile, and the doleful centuries of the restoration
of the Old Testament theocracy ; hence, unless we
refuse altogether to believe in the fulfilment of pro
phecy, its fuller accomplishment is still to be looked
for in a future assembling of converted Israel in the
Holy Land, and in the imperial glory with which he
will then be invested.1 For that which belongs only
to the first step of a mere times-fulfilment, this argu
ment coolly transfers to the realm of eschatological
fulfilment ; what is in reality but the beginning of
fulfilment is made the end.
Further, the conception of the prophecies of Israel's
1 Cp. Auberlen, Der Prophet Daniel, pp. 391 f.

New Testament Fulfilment. 247
imperial power, which we here combat, is opposed by
analogy. As we have seen, there are, within the
Messianic prophecy of the Old Covenant, important
differences in the degrees in which the envisaging
forms of the Old Testament are insisted upon ; at its
highest pitches prophecy discards many of them, and
thus itself warns us not to expect any perfectly literal
fulfilment of such oracles. But, instead of following
up this hint, and judging the whole case of the Old
Testament envisaging forms of prophecy according to
the analogy of such instances, the view in question —
the moment it is applied with any degree of logical
consistency — stints and limits the content of those
more highly developed Old Testament prophecies which
come nearest to the standard of New Testament
assurance, in favour of a literal understanding of others
that keep within the limits of the Old Testament forms.
Instead of the letter of prophecy being judged in the
light of those higher manifestations, in which every
now and then the Spirit reveals itself more clearly,
this very revelation of the Spirit of prophecy is again
obscured by an insistence upon the letter. — There is,
however, yet another and more complete analogy which
is contravened by this view. It has already been
shown how, according to the witness of the New
Testament, the case stands with the conception that
even in the Messianic time Jerusalem will remain
the place of Jehovah's abode and revelation, and the
centre of the theocracy. This conception, which in like
manner pervades the entire scheme of Old Testament

248 The Relation of Messianic Prophecy to
prophecy, hangs together in the most indissoluble way
with the prophecy of Israel's imperial glory in his
own land. If, now, the warrant of this conception
has been attested in the founding of the Kingdom of
Christ by just Such an historical fulfilment as was
necessarily involved in a Divinely-ordained connexion
laetween the Old and New Testament kingdom and
people of God, which was not merely pretypical,
but also organico-historical, but if, beyond this, the
conception retains for the Kingdom of Christ only a
symbolico-typical significance, it cannot be permissible
to understand the announcement of Israel's imperial
glory in his own land quite differently ; on the contrary,
it can be judged only in conformity with this analogy.
Yet once more, and finally, it must be pointed out
that the view of our opponents, in order to favour the
Israelitish nation, must, first of all, deny the applica
bility to the Church of Jesus Christ of most of the
promises to whose comfort she has hitherto believed
herself entitled. For it is affirmed of all the pro
mises made to Israel as Jehovah's chosen and peculiar
people — and they certainly form the great majority
of the total number of promises — that they are valid,
not only in their historical sense (which we decidedly
admit), but also in their God-ordained ultimate re
ference to fulfilment in the historical scheme of saving
revelation, for Israel as a people, as a nation. A
Church essentially Gentile-Christian may only medi
ately regard them as promises given to her. Yet,
as promises immediately available ior her, there are

New Testament Fulfilment. 249
allowed to remain the prophecies of the incoming of
the Gentiles to the Kingdom of God, and their par
ticipation in the salvation bestowed upon Israel, and
these in turn will certainly confer the right, mediately
to refer to herself the promises intended properly
for the people of Israel in view of their future con
version. In no spirit of " Gentile pride," x but under
a grateful sense of the grace of God bestowed upon
her, and supported, as we shall immediately see, by
the testimony of the New Testament, the Church will
always firmly protest against such a conclusion, and
will reject the view, whose fruit it is, as unchurchly
and heterodox. — But more than this : In order to
glorify Israel, this view takes from Christ Himself
His proper honour. For if Israel is destined to
exercise a perpetual priesthood between God and
humanity, and will in the Millennial kingdom of the
future fulfil this destination, " imparting mediatorially
to the nations the blessing of communion with God
in a far other and more glorious way than hitherto," 2
Christ is no longer the sole Mediator between God
and men, for the mediatorship of Israel is interposed
between Him and the rest of humanity in such a way
as to make His mediatorial function depend for its
efficiency upon the mediatorship of Israel. And if
Israel's conversion and salvation are to be "the first
real spiritual quickening of the Gentiles," it is again
apparent that the full revelation and efficiency of
1 Auberlen, Abhandl. p. 835.
2 Auberlen, Der Prophet Daniel, pp. 389 f., and Abhandl. p. 803.

250 The Relation of Messianic Prophecy to
Christ as the Pneuma zoopoioun (" quickening Spirit ")
for the nations and the Gentile Church, are conditioned
by the attitude of Israel, being dependent upon a right
fulfilment of his vocation by the latter, which is still
in prospect. If, moreover, this view were applied to
those prophecies which its advocates are accustomed
to interpret as directly Messianic (although, in truth,
in their historical sense they apply quite as much, in
the first instance, to Israel as the people of God), i.e.
to the entire prophecy concerning the servant of
God,1 the degree to which such an exaggeration of the
historical sense of prophecy necessarily tends to
diminish the honour of the name of Jesus Christ, and
to fail in the recognition of the all-sufficiency of His
saving work, would be yet much more apparent.
Many of the advocates, however, of the view we are
combating do not go so far as, e.g., Auberlen. They do
not expect a perfectly literal fulfilment of the prophecy
of Israel's imperial glory. It is acknowledged that
much of it is, in the light of New Testament fulfil
ment, to be regarded as the Old Testament veil of the
saving thoughts of God, and only the more general
root-thought, that, even in his dispersion among the
peoples of the earth, Israel will preserve his distinctive
existence in view of his final destiny, and, when the
times of the world - peoples are fulfilled, will, as a
people, obey the call of the gospel and reassume his
central position in the Divine Kingdom, is firmly
retained as a prophecy that still awaits its fulfil-
1 Cp. pp. 213 ff.

New Testament Fulfilment. 251
ment.1 It is beheved that we are compelled to regard
this general root-thought as an element essential to the
content of prophecy, partly by the fact that even in
his dispersion Israel retains to this day a separate
national existence,2 partly by the testimony of the
New Testament. The objections we have urged above
lose their force against this modification of the view in
question, and the line of argument used to support it.
The only question is, has it really the witness of the
New Testament on its side ? For answer we address
ourselves to the positive exhibition of the true state
of the case.
Old Testament prophecy certainly does not recognise
more than " a temporary rejection of Israel — one, too,
that falls out in such a way that Israel does not
perish as a people, but is preserved for his future
home-bringing."3 To appreciate properly the signifi
cance of this fact, there are two things of which we
must not fail to take account. For one thing — the
above proposition notwithstanding — the promises of
the prophets do not avail for the nation of Israel as
such. They do not belong to Israel-according-to-the-
flesh, but they concern him only in so far as he is
1 So, e.g., Oehler in the art. "Weissagung" in Herzog's Real-
Encyklopddie, pp. 658 f.
2 "The miracle of Israel's preservation to this hour, while all the
other nationalities of antiquity have been annihilated, or at least trans
formed beyond possibility of recognition through the admixture of
foreign blood, — this double wonder, seeing that the other pepples re
mained in their settlements, while Israel was dispersed over the whole
world, is the grand commentary of history on revelation." — Auberlen,
Der Prophet Daniel, p. 3.92.
3 Words of Oehler in loc. cit.

252 Tlie Relation of Messianic Prophecy to
really the chosen ¦ peculiar people of Jehovah ; hence
the prophecy of the sifting and purification of the
people by the Divine judgments, and of the remnant
preserved amid these judgments, out of which will
emerge a renewed people of God. It is only in conse
quence of the Divine judgments, partly by extirpation
of the obstinate evil-doers, partly by the conversion of
the others and the general outpouring of the Spirit,
that entire Israel becomes the true people of God,
whose part it is to hope for the fulfilment of the promises.
— And along with this it has to be remembered,
secondly, that in the prophetic consciousness the pre
servation or, as the case may be, the restoration in
general of a people and kingdom of God on earth, was
indissolubly bound up with the continued existence of
the people Israel. And before the time was fulfilled,
and under the proviso that the saving work of God,
begun in the election of Israel, should not be frus
trated or require to be begun entirely afresh through
Israel's own unfaithfulness, the relation thus assumed
by the prophets to obtain between Israel and the
Kingdom of God was actually in conformity with the
facts. Undoubtedly, however, the main thing with
the prophets, when they hold out the prospect gi the
future redemption of Israel from the power of the
heathen, and the restoration of the Israelitish State, is
the preservation of the people and kingdom of God
upon earth, even although they do not consciously dis
tinguish the wider from the narrower issue. — Whence
it is at once apparent that it does not at all correspond

New Testament Fulfilment. 253
with the real sentiments of the prophets to represent the
promises, made through them to Israel as Jehovah's
peculiar people, as available for converted Israel as a
nation, in contradistinction and opposition to a people
of God gathered meanwhile from among Israel and the
heathen. Now, the promises in pre-Exilian and Exilian pro
phecy of the deliverance of Israel from Assyrian and
Babylonian captivity, of his return and gathering into
the holy land, of the rebuilding of Jerusalem and
the temple, and the reconstruction of the shattered
theocracy, were notoriously fulfilled upon Israel as a
people in the times of Zerubbabel, Ezra, and Nehemiah.
Consequently they disappear from the contents of post-
Exilian prophecy, which in but one other instance —
that of Zech. 8: 7 f.1 — announces freedom and home-
bringing for those who were even then still captive in
East and West, i.e. in all lands. This times-fulfilment
fell certainly far short of the ideal delineations of the
restoration of the theocracy projected by prophecy,
and that, on a just reckoning, only partly in conse
quence of the fact that Israel had not yet turned to
his God with his whole heart. For to the prophetic
consciousness this restoration presented itself as at the
same time the ultimate accomplishment of the King
dom. In particular, there remained yet unfulfilled
the prophecy, first announced with full clearness by
1 It would be to mistake the apocalyptic mode of presentation,
already prevalent in the night- visions of Zechariah, to adduce in this
connection the passage Zech. 2. 10 ff.

254 The Relation of Messianic Prophecy to
Deutero-Isaiah, that God's intention in the election of
Israel should now reach accomplishment ; that Israel
as the servant of Jehovah should, through fulfilment
of his prophetic and priestly calling, accomplish upon
all peoples God's saving purpose regarding humanity,
and himself participate in that glory, at once royal and
priestly, destined for him. This contrast between the
times-fulfilment and the much more glorious content
of the prophecy — constituting for the author of the
Book of Daniel a problem which is solved, not by his
own reflection, but by Divine revelation1 — indicated
that the redemption of Israel from the power of the
Chaldeans and the restoration of the theocracy was
to be regarded only as the beginning of the fulfilment
of prophecy, and that the people of God had still to
await its full fulfilment, and so there was assigned
to post-Exilian prophecy the task of preserving alive
in these doleful times the confident hope of the im
pending accomplishment of the kingdom of God.
And this hope was not put to shame. For in the
very fact that, in the last centuries before Christ,
Israel exercised unmistakably, through the medium
of Alexandrian Judaism and the translation of the
documentary sources of revelation into the language
then spoken by the entire civilised world,2 a purifying
influence upon the religious conceptions of Greeks and
Eomans, and led many seeking souls among the
heathen to the knowledge and worship of the true God,
we have to recognise a further preparatory step on the
1 Dan. 9. 3 I.e. in the Septuagint.

New Testament Fulfilment. 255
road towards the fulfilment of the prophecies of Deutero-
Isaiah. — But it was only when the time was fulfilled
that the promise given to Israel as the people of God
was fulfilled, even in that portion of its contents which
related to the accomplishment of the Kingdom. Sal
vation was " of the Jews." x Christ and His apostles
were of the nation of Israel. The lost sheep of the
house of Israel constituted the appointed sphere of
Christ's personal ministry. His salvation was offered
in the first instance to the Jews. Children of Israel
formed the nucleus of the community of Jesus Christ,
and were the first recipients of the gift of the Holy
Spirit, and the heralds of the gospel as well for the
Gentiles as for their own dispersed brethren. Thus
the prophecy relating to the accomplishment of the
Kingdom fulfilled itself, as one given to the nation of
Israel. The facts of Christ's membership in that nation
and of the organico-historical connexion of His Church
with Jehovah's chosen peculiar people, add the seal of
historical fulfilment to the announcement of the pro
phets that, .conformably with the counsel of God, the
promise of the Messianic salvation belonged to Israel
as a people. The election of Israel and the conception
of his central position in the Kingdom of God, which
pervades the entire scheme of Old Testament prophecy,
as well as the prophecy of his mediatorial mission as the
bearer of saving revelation among the nations, received
in this way their rights in the New Testament fulfilment.
But all Israel did not — the people as a people did
1 John 4. 22.

256 The Relation of Messianic Prophecy to
not — participate in the salvation offered to them ; only
a remnant — only a select company — did, while the
remainder, in impenitent obduracy, rejected salvation
in the Crucified and Eisen One.1 Hence the Divine
judgment of rejection went forth against Israel as a
people, and, as had been already announced by the
Lord Himself, the Kingdom of God was given to the
Gentiles. The people of God continued to exist, not,
however, in Israel as a nation, but in the New Testa
ment community, which was composed of the "rem
nant" of Israel and of believers from among the
Gentiles, received into the Kingdom of Christ as citizens
and members of the household of faith. Elements,
thus, that in the prophetic consciousness appear as
indissolubly united — the conception of Israel as a
nation and the idea of the people of God — are separ
ated in the historical fulfilment. Side by side with
Israel as a nation that, for the present world-era at
least, has ceased to be the people of God and the
trustee of the Divine revelation of salvation, there
stands a people of God that, as regards its first mem
bers, proceeded from Israel (so fulfilling the prophetic
oracle of the renewal from the " remnant "), but yet
owed its existence chiefly to the accession of believers
from among the Gentiles. Who, then, are the rightful
heirs of the promises made to the covenant people of
the Old Testament, so far as these promises are yet
unfulfilled ? For that they remain unfulfilled so long
as the Kingdom of Christ does not embrace all peoples*
1 Cp. Rom. 11. 1-10.

New Testament Fulfilment. 257
and so long as the glory of the Church of Christ fails
of accomplishment or visible presentation, is undeniably
certain. — Manifestly, the present rejection of Israel
cannot be put on the same level with the earlier tem
porary repudiations in the times when the continuance
of the kingdom and people of God on earth was still
entirely dependent upon the continuance of the Israel
itish nation. To apply the prophecies relating to these
earlier repudiations baldly to the present rejection of
Israel, is to ignore one of the most prominent facts of
historical fulfilment, and the clue it supplies ' to a
proper estimate of the Divine prophetic word ; and it
is, as we have seen,, impossible to do justice to the
sense actually attached to their utterances by the
prophets themselves, unless we regard the New Testa
ment people of God, and not the nation of Israel, as
the heirs of the still unfulfilled promises given to the
covenant-people of the Old Testament. In the light
shed upon prophecy by the history of fulfilment, the
New Testament people of God appears as its alone
rightful heir. Of Israel, however, it has to be said:
The fact that in him salvation has been prepared for
the whole of humanity, proves the accomplishment of
the object of his election, the fulfilment, once for all,
of his vocation, as the historical bearer of revelation
and salvation. Henceforth he participates in the
promises given to the people of God only in so far as,
and to the extent to which, he has entered or is enter
ing the Church of Christ ; and his participation is of
precisely the same kind, and subject to the same con-

258 The Relation of Messianic Prophecy to
ditions, with Gentile believers ; i.e. individual Israelites
have part in the promises in so far as they become by
faith members of the New Testament people of God,
but they have no preference before other members.
On the other hand, Israel's slighting as a nation of the
day of his visitation, and his rejection of his Messias,
have deprived him of all historical function as regards
salvation and the Kingdom ;, and the promises of the
prophets do not offer him any prospective restoration
of his national distinctiveness, any central position in
the Kingdom of God, any imperial glory, destined for
him as a nation and to be enjoyed in his own land.
As against the objection that, in the Old Testament
at least, Israel's election is represented as of eternal
validity, it has to be remembered, first, that the Israel
itish descent of Jesus Christ, and the rise of the
Christian Church from the bosom of Israel, lend an
eternal and far-reaching importance to the fact of
Israel's election. The case is an exact parallel to that
of the election of the house of David, of which the Old
Testament speaks in similar terms, and which, in
Christ's birth as the son of David, proves itself to have
happened once for all. But, secondly, in reference to
the rejection of Israel as a nation, it has to be main
tained that in the Divine word of the Old Testament
there is an adh-olam (for ever) that is meant only
relatively,1 and another which the Old Testament
writers mean to be taken absolutely, but which, in the
further course of the history of salvation, is lowered to
1 Cp. e.g. Isa. 32. 14.

New Testament Fulfilment. 259
a position of relative validity, i.e. reveals itself as, in
God's decree, meant only relatively; Such is the case
with the eternal priesthood of the house of Aaron and
its annexed eternal prerogatives;1 with the eternal
election of Jerusalem as Jehovah's dwelling-place ;
with the election for ever of the nation of Israel.
The faithful covenant -God retains this election in
validity up to the moment of His people's attaining,
under His conduct, their predestined goal as implied
in that election ; but the " election for ever " can
never, aff^ the attainment of this goal, confine the
reference of the further execution of His saving pur
pose to a people who, through their rejection of the
offered salvation, have become incapable of serving as
the human organ of its dissemination, and in whose
stead He has prepared Himself another organ in the
New Testament people of God.
This view of the case is supported by the testimony
of the New Testament. Undoubtedly the latter asserts
throughout that the promises of God were given in
the first instance to the people of Israel, and that
therefore their fulfilment also, the salvation in Christ,
must be offered, and in the truth and faithfulness of
God was offered, in the first instance to Israel, while
the offer to the Gentiles, to whom God had given no
covenant-promises, resulted from pure mercy.2 The
same is notoriously asserted both in word and deed by
1 Cp. e.g. Ex. 40. 15, Num. 18. 19, 25. 13 ; also Jer. 33. 18 ff.
2 Cp. the contrast between the hyper aletheias Theou and the hypir
elious (for the sake of God's truth, . . mercy) in Rom. 15. 8 f.

260 The Relation of Messianic Prophecy to
the apostle of the circumcision x as well as by the
apostle of the Gentiles.2 But both are equally unani
mous in the opinion that, since the origin of the
community of Jesus Christ, it is no longer Israel as a
nation, but this community gathered from him and
from the Gentiles, who compose the chosen, holy,
priestly, peculiar people of God.3 They are the true
Israel of God,4 the true seed of Abraham,5 and hence
the promises given to the Old Testament covenant-
people are considered as available for them and as
fulfilling themselves in them.6 That within the New
Testament community a Jewish or a Gentile origin
makes no sort of difference as regards participation in
the salvation offered in Christ and the conditions
annexed to participation, that much rather those who
were formerly heathen are fully qualified fellow-
citizens with the saints, arid fellow-heirs of the promises
given to the seed of Abraham, is often enough expressly
taught by the Apostle Paul.7 It is precisely in this
perfect equalising of Gentile and Jew in the Kingdom
of Christ on the ground of the immediacy of the
former's relation to Christ and to God, and of his
1 Cp. e.g. Acts 2. 39, 3. 25 f..
2 Cp. e.g. Acts 13. 46, Rom. 1. 16, 3. 1 f.
3 Cp. 1 Pet. 2. 9 f., Rom. 9. 24 ff, 2 Cor. 6. 16, Tit. 2. 14. Even
Auberlen cannot, of course, deny this ; but he is of opinion that the
case stands thus only "in the present world-era, in which Israel is
rejected" (Abhandlung, p. 803).
4 Gal. 6. 16, Rom. 9. 6 ff.
6 Rom. 4. 16 ff, Gal. 3. 7. 29, 4. 28.
6 Cp. the citations from Rom. 9. 25 f., 2 Cor. 6. 2. 16^18, Gal. 4. 27.
7 Cp. Rom. 3. 29 f., 10. 12, 1 Cor. 12. 13, Gal. 3. 28 f., 6. 15, Eph.
2. 11-22, Col. 3. 11.

New Testament Fulfilment. 261
participation in salvation and the promises, now that
the hitherto prevalent ethnico-Israelitish character of the
Theocracy was entirely removed, that the new apprehension
regarding the calling of the Gentiles into the Kingdom
of Christ consists — of which the Apostle Paul says,
that it was not made known to the former generations
(Eph. 3. 5), inasmuch as, up to this time, the entrance
of the Gentiles into the kingdom of God appeared
always more or less as an entrance, at the same time,
into the national communion of Israel, and their
participation in salvation seemed to be mediated by
its true recipient, Israel.1 — With these unambiguous
testimonies of the New Testament no sort of media
torial priestly position of converted Israel is at all
reconcilable. On the other hand, we have not found in
them, as yet, any absolute exclusion of the possibility
of Israel's taking, in spite of the equalisation above
referred to, as a nation the foremost place in the
organism of the perfected Kingdom of Christ. In this
connexion, and not without reason, the relation between
Jew and Gentile has been compared with that between
man and wife.2 But the New Testament would, in
that case, necessarily require to attest this preference,
still in store for the Jewish nation, with the same
clearness and freedom from ambiguity with which it
attests the perfect equalising of Jew and Gentile.
We should expect such a testimony preeminently in
1 Only in Isa. 19. 19 ff, and possibly also Zeph. 2. 11, this limit to
the prophetic apprehension of the entrance of the Gentiles into the
kingdom of God is to some extent broken through.
2 Cp. Auberlen, Der Prophet Daniel, pp. 390 f.

262 The Relation of Messianic Prophecy to
the Apocalypse, the prophetic book of the New Testa
ment. But just here we look for it in vain. This
book tells indeed of 144,000 servants of God, chosen
from the twelve tribes of Israel, who, preserved in the
impending judgments, shall enter the glorified kingdom
as conquerors, as distinguished from the innumerable
company of those who have " overcome " from among
all peoples of the earth ; x but in the delineation of the
last stages in the development of the Kingdom, as it
hastens to its accomplishment, particularly in the
announcement of the Millennial kingdom, no account
whatever is taken of the difference between Israel and
the heathen, nor is there, in general, any mention of
converted Israel, albeit the names of the twelve tribes
— as also that of Jerusalem — and many features of
the prophecies, which treat of Israel's imperial glory,
are employed in the description of the Kingdom of
Christ in its perfected heavenly form. The assertion,
that the gap of the Apocalypse is to be filled up from
Old Testament prophecy, has in reality only the worth
of- an acknowledgment of this state of the case.2 The
1 Rev. 7. 4 ff.
2 Hofmann in loc. cit. p. 656. Auberlen, Der Prophet Daniel,
1st ed. pp. 341 f. The attempts to explain this remarkable silence of
the Apocalypse are as unsatisfactory as possible. Very naive is the
following, inter alia, remark of Auberlen's : "The Apocalypse was
intended for the Gentile Christian period ; its design is to communicate
to the New Testament community, gathered as it was chiefly from
the Gentiles, what is necessary for it to know in its pilgrimage through
the desert ; it is its guide-book ; it has to describe its fortunes. In
view of this limited design no special account can be taken of Israel
as a nation." As if it were not of the greatest consequence for the
Gentile Church to know that she may expect the full blessing of

New Testament Fulfilment. 263
facts themselves convey the decisive proof that the
seer in the, Apocalypse, who surely had some skill in
the " realism " of Scripture, and believed in the fulfil
ment of the promises of the faithful covenant God,
could not have understood Old Testament prophecy as
placing in prospect a fact of such importance to the
history of the Kingdom as the reinstatement of the
nation of Israel in its central position in that Kingdom.
— It is alleged, however, that the apostle of the Gentiles
gives us precisely what is lacking in the Apocalypse.
And certainly, in the passage referred to, the apostle
does announce in the most definite manner that Israel's
obduracy will last only until the full number of the
Gentiles have entered the Church of Christ, and that
then all Israel will be converted and saved. Here
then we have a hopeful prophecy for the still im
penitent totality of Israel — a prophecy, moreover,
which is supported and confirmed by an appeal to a
promise of full forgiveness, given to the Old Testament

communion with God, and the true spiritual revival only after the
conversion and restoration of Israel as a people ! In the 2nd ed. p. 385
this passage is omitted, and the whole stress is laid upon the 144,000
of Rev. 7. 4 ff. (vid. sup.) and upon "the grand general confirmation
of all Old Testament prophecy" in Rev. 10. 7. But this "general
confirmation " will have, we should suppose, to be understood in the
sense which the succeeding prophecy of the Apocalypse itself naturally

1 In Rom. 11. 25 ff., cp. ver. 15. We omit utterances of Christ such
as Matt. 19. 28, 23. 39, 24. 34, which have been used to support the
same position, as a candid exegesis altogether fails to show that they
contain a prophecy of a future national restoration of Israel. Cp. on
them Bleek, Synoptische Erklarung der drei ersten Evangelien, ii.
pp. 272 and 382.

264 The Relation of Messianic Prophecy to
covenant people,1 as well as by the fact that, with
reference to Israel's election, the Jews are " beloved
for their fathers' sake," for the " gifts and calling of
God " (i.e. His calling to salvation) " are without
repentance." Thus in fact, according to the testimony
of the apostle, Israel's election and the promise given
to him remain in force even for the people who are
at present rejected ; the Israelites have not forfeited
for ever their natural rights as the next heirs to a
Kingdom of God founded amongst them and for them ;
in the end they also will have their part in it. Still,
let us beware of introducing into the text what is
really not there. The apostle certainly speaks of
Israel's totality, but the expression pds Israel (all
Israel) by no means necessarily implies the giving of
any special prominence to the Israelitish nationality,
as an organism confined within itself, compact in the
unity of a state, and thus asserting its national idio
syncrasy. Further, the apostle certainly speaks of
Israel's reinstatement in the Kingdom of God, of their
rescue, of their renewed pardon, but we read nothing
of an historical mission of salvation which Israel is
then to fulfil, or of a central position which he shall
occupy in the Kingdom of God, or of a special imperial
glory with which he shall be invested ; nor is there
one word of his being gathered into the Holy Land,
or of the restitution of an Israelitish kingdom.2
1 Isa. 59. 20 f. ; cp. 27. 9.
2 That Paul promises repentant Israel yet another missionary function
in the history of salvation, is sought to be proved, partly from the ex
pression cliarismata (gifts), ver. 29, partly from the words tis heprdslepsis

New Testament Fulfilment. 265
In this reference, its full weight should be allowed
to the fact, that, of the promises given to Israel, the
apostle chooses for citation just one of those which
offer Israel the prospect of forgiveness and restored
favour, but not of special glory. To whom, it might
be asked, moreover, would Israel fulfil his alleged
further prophetic and priestly calling in the way
promised in Old Testament prophecy ? Does not
the apostle expressly place his conversion and re-
acceptance in the time when the full number of the
Gentiles have already entered the Kingdom of God ! l
So far, indeed, from being aware -of any saving
mediatorial mission, which converted Israel should
have to fulfil towards the Gentiles, he regards, on
the contrary, the rich revelation of the Divine mercy
ei me zoe ek nekrtn (" what the receiving of them," etc.), ver. 15. The
former expression, however, cannot in the context in which it occurs
denote special gifts of grace imparted to Israel for the fulfilment of his
calling, but only the blessings of salvation which belong to the Kingdom
of God. (Charismata, as in Rom. 5. 15 f. 6. 23 ; it can hardly be trans
lated "exhibitions of grace," as the LXX. never renders the Hebrew
chasddhim — which is used in this sense — by charismata, but by t& elee
(compassions) or the like. ) And the latter expression (the tis he, etc. , ver.
15) — however we choose to understand the zoe ek nekrdn (on which see
Meter) — does not, at any rate, imply that life from the dead is to
proceed from Israel, in virtue of his exercising a mediatorial function
in reference to salvation, but only that the conversion and reacceptance
of Israel must precede the accomplishment of salvation.
1 Opposed to this is the view given in Auberlen's sketch of the
consequences of Israel's restitution: "There is no longer any need
of a toilsome pursuit of the Gentiles, they come in of themselves,
attracted by tho sight of the rich gifts of the Divine revelation of
grace " (Der Prophet Daniel, p. 402). And : " Israel is to be a
kingdom.' of priests, bringing salvation to all peoples " (Abhandl.
p. 835).

266 The Relation of Messianic Prophecy to
to the Gentiles as the first means by which Israel is
led to repentance with a view to participation in
the same mercy.1 Obviously, thus, the prospect of
restoration offered to Israel is only one of those
promises to which the saying is applicable : " The
first shall be last." 2 As is perfectly apparent from
Eom. 11. 32, it hangs together with the prophecy —
once and again repeated by Paul — -oi the ultimate
unqualified universality of the possession of salvation,
account being taken, however, of the fact that, in
Israel's case, the common hope has special supports in
his election and the promises committed to him.
Israel's election and the promises given to him
remain thus in force for the people, who have been
rejected because of their obduracy, just so far as they
guarantee that Israel has not been cast away for ever,
has not forfeited irrecoverably the salvation in Christ,
but will eventually have hjs own share in it. On the
other hand, no special preference is promised even in
Eom. 11 to converted Israel above Gentile believers.3

1 Rom. 11. 31, cp. vv. 11 and 14.
2 Cp. Bertheau in loc. cit. (1859) p. 325: "In the few passages
[of the New Testament] which allow us to glance at Israel's future,
lie does not appear as a triumphant first-fruits among the peoples who
participate in the bliss of the Divine Kingdom, but as one born late,
who yet, by God's grace, is allowed a share in the beatification. "
3 The fact of the national continuity of Israel in his dispersion
cannot, in these circumstances, prove that some further historical
mission for the Kingdom of God is in store for that nation. We do
not need to ask here the historical reason and ground of this
continuity, or to enter upon the question, how long it may yet be
expected to last. Suffice it to say, that Rom. 11, along with other
New Testament passages, shows the facts in a different light by

New Testament Fulfilment. 267
The clearest and weightiest attestation of the above
argument on the relation of Israel as a nation to the
New Testament Theocracy (pp. 256 ff), is that offered
by the Gospel of John. — For this Gospel is wholly
dominated by the view that, because of their slighting
the Messianic salvation manifested in Christ, the
Jews, as a nation, have ceased to be the people of
God, have become, on the contrary, the type of the
God-estranged world, and that their place is occupied
by a community compacted without regard to the
nationality of its members — that, viz., of those who
have become children of God through Christ.1 — The
New Testament thus both sanctions and demands our
distinguishing, in the prophetic oracle of the future
imperial glory of Israel in his own land, between the
Old Testament mode of presentation and the eternal
saving thoughts of God. The Israelitish descent of
the Saviour of the world, the organico - historic
connexion of the New Testament people of God
with Israel, the conservation of Israel's priority of
claim to the promised salvation, serve as the historical
fulfilment of this oracle, and attest it as one in
harmony with the purpose of God. In so far, how
ever, as it remains yet unfulfilled, it must, regarded in
representing the Jewish nation as affording, first of all, by its rejec
tion of salvation in Christ, an example of Divine judgment, but,
ultimately, an all the more brilliant example of His mercy and
faithfulness. 1 Cp- A. H. Franks, Das Alte Testament bei Johannes, 1885, pp.
17 ff., 243 ff, and my remarks in the Studien und Kritiken, 1885
pp. 566 ff.

268 The Relation, of Messianic Prophecy to
the light of the New Covenant and the New Testa
ment word of God, be assigned, like other prophecies,
to the realm of the typico-Messianic It is in harmony
with the Divine intention, in the scheme of historical
revelation, that all the utterances of prophecy, which
in their historical sense speak of the imperial glory
of Israel in the last times, should be referred to
the future glorious manifestation of the Church of
Christ, the New Testament people of God; and the
fact that prophecy assigns the prospect of this glory
to Israel, is only an Old Testament veil of the Divine
saving thoughts.1
A view, largely supported in modern times (though
by no meams solidly founded),2 to the effect that the
Davidic descent of Christ cannot be maintained from
the standpoint of a critical examination of the
evangelic history, suggests at once the question,
whether the Davidic descent of the Messias is not one
of those Old Testament envisaging forms by which
prophecy abides, but to which New Testament ful
filment warrants us in assigning only a typico-
1 In spite, therefore, of its unhistorical character, the old churchly
view of these prophecies, which Hengstenberg revived (particularly
in. his paper, "Die Juden und die , christliche Kirche," Evang.
Kirchenzeitung, May 1857), is essentially correct as regards its main
result, and is vastly preferable to the Judaising view we have been
discussing. The remark of Keil is much to the point : ' ' Through
Christ the promise is exalted from its times-form to ils essence, through
Him the whole earth becomes Canaan " (Genesis, p. 146,2nd ed.).
Cp. also the detailed discussion of the whole questioii in the same
author's Commentary on Ezek. pp. 347 ff. and 497 ff.
2 The verdict even of Keim, Geschichte Jesu von Nazara, i. pp.
326 ff. [Eng. Transl. vol. ii. pp. 25 ff.].

New Testament Fulfilment. 269
symbolical significance. In the attempt to answer
this question affirmatively reference might be made
to the disentanglement of the Messianic prospects
from the Davidic kingship, and the appropriation to
the people of God of the promises of grace, given to
David, which we find in Deutero-Isaiah, as well as
to the fact that in Daniel the Messias is not character
ised as the son of David ; and these facts might be
thought to imply a favourable witness from the Old
Testament itself to the conclusion sought to be
established.1 The previous course of our argument,
however, carries with it both the fact and the reason
of a negative answer. The Davidic descent of the
Messias is on the same footing with the requirement
that salvation should come from the Jews. It was
the fulfilment required to do justice to the election
of a royal Davidic house, and to the promises given
to it, on which the truth and faithfulness of God were
staked. — On the other hand, there are certainly other
more isolated features in the Messianic prophecies in
whose case the essence of the prophecy is exhibited
in severance from its temporary mode of presentation
only in the fulfilment. In this connexion Malachi's
prophecy deserves special mention, that the prophet
Elias will, as preparer of the way, precede a God who
is coming for judgment and the accomplishment of
salvation.2 For the prophet can hardly have called
the preparer of the way Elias merely in a sense
parallel to that of the name David (i.e. a second David),
1 Cp. pp. 191 ff. 5 Mai. 4. 5 f . ; cp. 3. 1.

270 The Relation of Messianic Prophecy to
as baldly applied to the Messias ; l the expectation,
rather, of the personal return of Elias, who had not
died, but had been withdrawn to heaven, — an expectar
tion widely diffused even in the time of Christ, and
prevalent among Jews, Mohammedans, and Christians,
(till the Eeformation), — appears to be in entire
accordance with the meaning of the prpphet. That,
however, this prophecy was fulfilled in John the
Baptist, is notoriously attested, not only by the evan
gelists, whose report of the appearance and preaching
of John carefully emphasises his resemblance to
Elias, but also by the Lord Himself in repeated
expressions.2 Here also, in the light of the New Testa
ment fulfilment, the essential ideal substance of the
prophecy is separated from the typico-symbolical envis
aging form in which it was realised in the consciousness
of the prophet. In His significant ei thtlete dexasthaif
Matt. 11. 14, Christ Himself draws attention to the
contrast between the interpretation of prophecy that
is captive to its literal historical sense, and that
understanding which grasps its essential substance, and
hence does not fail to mark a fulfilment already past.41
1 Hos. 3. 5, Jer. 30. 9, Ezek. 34. 23, 37. 24.
2 Matt. 11. 14, 17. 10 ff. s If ye will receive it.
4 It is remarkable that the advocates of the Judaising view of the
prophecies of Israel's imperial glory have not included the personal
return of Elias among their eschatological expectations (cp. , however,
Hoemann in loc. cit. ii. p. 103) — the more that they would have on
their side the view, prevalent in the Church till the Reformation,
according to which the fulfilment in John the Baptist is only
temporary, while the perfect fulfilment is to take place immediately
before the Parousia. Christ, however, would certainly use His ei
thelete dixasthai to point the contrast between the fulfilment of the

New Testament Fulfilment. 271
4. The proof, however, of the incongruity between
Old Testament prophecy and New Testament fulfil
ment, which results from the times - adapted and
specifically Old Testament elements which prophecy
contains, i.e. from its symbolico - typical character,
gives by no means a complete view of the difference
between the two factors at present under comparison.
Besides this incongruity, there are other respects in
which Messianic prophecy fails to exhibit any full
apprehension of the Divine purpose which attains
accomplishment in the New Covenant. That purpose
is fully revealed only in its actual carrying out. One
main ground — though not the only one — of this
imperfection lies in the fact that, by its method of
starting at different times from different ideas, con
tained in the Old Testament religion and embodied in
the Old Testament theocracy, and developing thence
their several Messianic contents,1 prophecy succeeds in
apprehending, under manifold combinations, only indi
vidual fragmentary moments of the saving purpose of God,
without being able to exhibit them in the connexion in
which, in the fulfilment, they are compacted into a
uniform whole. What the Apostle Paul says of New
Testament prophecy : ek mirous propheteuomen? is
true in a much greater measure of that of the Old
Testament. The polumeros of Heb. 1. Is is very
prophecies of Israel's imperial glory and mediatorial vocation in
Himself and His community, and their confinement to their literal
historical sense.
1 Cp. pp. 175 ff. 2 Weprophesy in part, 1 Cor. 13. 9.
3 In many parts, cp. my Lehrbegriff des Hebraerbriefes, pp. 89 and 92._

272 The Relation of Messianic Prophecy to
marked even, in its Messianic prophecy.1 We shall
endeavour — within the limits of our space — to
exhibit, by a reference to the salient points, the
extent to which a knowledge of the saving
purpose of God, which is realised in the New
Covenant, was already implied in Old Testament
prophecy, and the extent to which the latter falls
short of the sublimity and wealth of New Testament
fulfilment. (a) The prophecy that comes nearest the New
Testament, as regards apprehension of saving truth, is
that concerning the final condition of the people and
kingdom of God. Although it is often, especially in
the oldest prophecies, the external side of the Messianic
salvation — which, however, is always regarded as the
consequence and blessing of a perfected communion
with God — that is made prominent, it happens, never
theless, not unfrequently that the spiritual salvation
in which the people of God participate in the last days
receives the chief place. In particular : the complete
and universal forgiveness of sins, as the result of a new
and all-sufficient exhibition of the pardoning grace of
God, and the thorough ethico-religious renewal of hearts
and of the entire public life, in consequence of. the out
pouring of the Spirit of God upon all the members of
the nation without exception, and of His indwelling
in hearts, advance steadily with the development of
Messianic prophecy to the position of the chief saving
1 Cp. Oehler, art. " We'ssagung " in Herzog's Real-Encyklopadie,
xvii. p. 655. Theologie des Alien Testamentes, ii. § 216.

New Testament Fulfilment. 27 3
benefits of the ' Messianic era.1 The covenant - com
munion of Israel with Jehovah culminates in an
immediate personal communion of love between all indi
viduals and God, Who then dwells substantially and for
ever in the midst of His people, reveals Himself in all
the fulness of His glory and grace for all, and in the
diffusion of salvation and blessing manifests His gracious
presence in full measure ; Who also, in particular, by
the mighty workings of His Spirit, immediately en
lightens and rules all individuals, making them His
organs, adapted habitually to share His confidence and
receive His reArelations, so that only the extraordinary
experiences of the Spirit's work and of revelation
which occurred in the peculiar domain of prophecy,
can serve to illustrate what will then be the common
experience of all.2 Then the people of God will
become a people truly holy in all its members,3 a
priestly people,4 a congregation of the righteous,5 chil
dren of the living God.6 The law will no longer stand
between God and His people in the form of civil
statutes externally imposed; but it will be written on
the hearts of all by the Spirit, i.e. every one will then
bear within himself a clear living knowledge of the will
of God, which will serve as a powerful inward impulse
1 Cp. esp. Joel 2. 28 ff, Isa'. 29. 18. 24, 30. 19 ff, 32. 3 f. 15, 33.
24, Micah 7. 18 ff, Zech. 12. 10, 13. 1 ff., Jer. 3. 21 ff, 24. 7, 31.
29 ff, 32. 39 f., 33. 8, 50. 20, Ezek. 11. 19 f., 16. 63, 36. 25 ff., 37.
23, 39. 29, Isa. 44. 3.
2 Cp. Joel 2. 28 ff, Hos. 2. 18 ff, Jer. 31. 31 ff, Isa. 45. 7-10. 13,
65. 24.
3 Isa. 4. 3, 35. 8, Dan. 7. 18. 22. 27. 4 Isa. 61. 6, 66. 21.
_s Isa. 60. 18. 21. 6 Hos. 1. 10.
S

2 74 TJie Relation of Messianic Prophecy to
towards a godly life, and thus the New Covenant will
be an eternal covenant, not exposed to any risk of
dissolution through the people's unfaithfulness.1 This
perfecting of covenant- communion involves a funda
mental alteration of the entire Old Testament ritual of
worship — even of the entire Old Testament economy.
The position and function of a special priesthood and
prophecy2 as the mediators of salvation and revelation,
the limitation of the gracious presence and revelation of
Jehovah to the external sanctuary of the temple, and
the external worship, consisting in the offering of animal-
sacrifices, fall away as things that belong only to the
present still imperfect form of covenant-communion.3
— In these deep glances — noticeable very specially
in Jeremiah — into the essence of perfected communion
with God, as regards its difference from what had
previously prevailed, there is implied the further per
ception, that the Kivgdom of God will no longer be first
and foremost a politico-national theocracy, but pre
eminently a spiritual Kingdom, the communion of
those who have communion with God. Elsewhere,
however, it is chiefly depicted with reference, in addi
tion, to the external form which it will ultimately
acquire as a Kingdom in which God Himself conducts
the government in a far more perfect way than in the
existing theocracy. It is then, as the people of God,
holy, thoroughly purified of all that characterises the
1 Jer. 31. 31 ff., 32. 40. 2 Prophetentum.
3 Jer. 31,34, Isa. 54. 13, 61. 6, 66. 21.— Jer. 3. 16 f.— Hos. 14. £,
Isa. 56. 7.

New Testament Fulfilment. 275
kingdoms of the world, all that it embraces is sub
ordinated to the holy will of Jehovah, and devoted to
His service -1 in it will reign right and righteousness,
truth and peace. Its holiness, further, will manifest
itself externally in perfected glory,2 and to the spiritual
salvation of perfected communion with God there will
correspond the richest fulness of earthly blessings, — a
stream of blessing proceeding from a God who dwells
in the midst of His people, fulfils all the longings and
yearnings of the human heart, and gives life and full
satisfaction.3 — Those whom the law excludes from the
community of Israel will also have part in the destined
salvation.* But especially it is decreed that all peoples
shall have part in it, for they will be incorporated
with the people of God, and the Kingdom of God will
become a universal theocracy, extending itself over
the whole earth.5 For even Old Testament prophecy
exhibits a clear perception of the Divine will that all
should be saved and come to the knowledge of the

1 Zech. 14. 20 f.
2 The most minute, sublime, and brilliant delineations of this glory
are those given by Deutero-Isaiah. Thus, e.g., in illustrating the glory
of the city of God he represents the most precious and glittering
things of earth — gold, silver, and the most beautiful pearls— as em
ployed in its construction (Isa. 54. 11 f., 60. 17), while it is adorned
with plantations of the loveliest trees (60. 13).
3 The earnest and symbol of this is the temple-spring, which becomes
a stream abounding with water, and transforming the holy land into
Paradise (Joel 4. 18, Zech. 14. 8, Ezek. 47. 1 ff.). On the all-sufficiency
of the God who is enthroned in the midst of His people, cp. also I?a.
60. 19 f. The city of God has no more need of sun or moon, for
Jehovah is her eternal light.
4 Isa. 56. 3 8'. » See pp. 205 ff.

276 The Relation of Messianic Prophecy to
truth. The announcement that the Kingdom of
God will take the place of the shattered kingdoms
of the world,, implies the view that its external
perfection will be accomplished by a judicial cata
strophe.1 — Finally, Old Testament prophecy is not
without the idea of an ultimate removal of every
evil that has entered the world through sin.2 It
speaks of the restoration of the whole creation to
more than its original perfection.3 It tells of a new
heaven and new earth which God will create ; 4 and,
in particular, of a future destruction of the dominion
of death,5 and a resurrection of the dead,6 which,
according to the prophecy in Daniel, will be twofold,
— for some to everlasting life, for others to everlasting
contempt,7 the final judgment being thus conceived
as including the already deceased members of the
people of God.
If we attempt to realise all this in the wealth of
manifold detail offered by the individual prophecies,
we shall be forced to admit that the prophecy of the
Old Covenant disclosed a prospect of the final condition
of the kingdom and people of God which approximates
to New Testament assurance. Still the distance between
the two is considerable ; the difference, moreover, does
not lie merely in the general superiority of the latter
to the views of the prophets as regards the clearness
and fulness of its knowledge of saving truth. We do
i Dan. 2. 34. 44, 7. 14. 18. 22. 27. 2 Cp. e.g. Isa. 33. 24.
3 Hos. 2. 18. 21 f., Isa. 11. 6 ff. 30. 26, 65. 25.
4 Isa. 65. 17, 66. 22. 5 Isa. 25. 8.
6 Isa. 26. 19. : Dan. 12. 2 f.

New Testament Fulfilment. 277
not seek to attach any special importance to individual
points, as, e.g., that the resurrection of the dead appears
even in the Book of Daniel as confined to deceased
Israelites, while in the entire range of the Old Testa
ment prophecy there is not a word of a general
resurrection of the dead. Nor need we more than refer
once again to the limitations of the prophets' appre
hensions of saving truth involved in the specifically
Old Testament conceptions explained above. Just
these limitations, however, hang together with another
of a very essential kind — that, viz., implied in the fact
that, in spite of Deutero-Isaiah's prophecy of the new
heaven, only the this-side, only, i.e., the terrestrial world,
appears as the sphere of the Kingdom of God erected
for His people, and as the scene of the accomplished
salvation. The curtain that concealed the other-side,
i.e. the heavenly world, is, not yet removed. That the
Theocracy of the perfect time will, as a Kingdom of
heaven, include the world beyond, and thus heaven
also be opened to the people of God, is not prophesied.
While, therefore, prophecy brings to light the ultimate
glorified form of the Kingdom of God on earth, it fails
to present the heavenly character of the Kingdom of
Christ. Hence, in spite of the announcement of an
abolished dominion of death and a resurrection of the
dead, prophecy still fails to offer to the godly the
comforting prospect of finding in death an entrance
into the blessedness of perfected communion with God
in heaven. The living hope, gifted to us through the
resurrection of Jesus Christ, goes thus far beyond

278 The Relation of Messianic Prophecy to
what is promised in the Messianic prophecy of the Old
Covenant.1 (b) Old Testament prophecy is not behindhand with
the distinct testimony that Israel does not attain per
fect fellowship with God by his own instrumentality
or power, but that rather its establishment and, in
general, the bringing about of the perfect state of the
people and kingdom of God, are throughout God's very
own work — the work of His free grace. He takes away
the sins of His people, not because of their desert, but
for His holy name and truth's sake,2 and He does so
by devising, in place of the insufficient means of pro
pitiation provided in the Old Covenant, new and
effective ordinances for purification from sin.3 By the
outpouring of His Spirit He. effects the repentant con
version,4 the heart-renewal, the willing obedience, with
one consent, of His commandments. In general, it is
His judgment and His deed of redemption which effect
the consummation. But in the carrying out of His
saving purpose He does not refuse to employ mediating
organs. And here foremost attention must be claimed
for the Messias, with whose appearance Messianic pro
phecy associates, particularly in the Assyrian period,
1 Cp. Delitzsch, Isaiah (3rd ed. p. 668): "The Old Testament
throughout fails to teach anything regard ing a blessed beyond. . Beyond
this world lies Hades. The Old Testament betrays no knowledge of a
heaven of blissful human beings. Only angels, not men, surround
the heavenly throne of God," — propositions wholly applicable -to the
content of Old Testament prophecy, and limitable only as regards
Enoch and Elijah.
2 Ezek. 16. 33, 36. 31 f., Isa. 43. 25, 48. 9. 16.
3 Zech. 13. 1, Ezek. 36. 25. * Zeeh. 12. 10 ff.

New Testament Fulfilment. 279
the dawn of the perfect time. It is no Messias,
appearing in lowliness and the form of a servant, who
is announced. What undoubtedly is presupposed is
that before the dawn of the Messianic time both the
people and the royal house of David will have, through
Divine judgment, experienced the utmost humiliation,
and, accordingly, that in the Messias both, and especially
the latter, will again be uplifted to glory. Hence
in Isa. 11. 1 the Messias is a branch from the hewn
stem of Jesse ; hence it is that in Micah 5. 2 he issues
forth, like the first David, from the small, inconspicuous
Bethlehem ; hence it is that, in Ezek. 17. 22 ff., he is
an offshoot taken from the lofty cedar of the royal
Davidic house, and planted anew, — an offshoot in which
the latter renews its youth, and grows again a glorious
cedar. He does not, moreover, like a worldy conqueror,
lay the foundations of his power with the implements
of martial prowess. Eather like the 'aniyye Yaheveh
(Jehovah's poor ones), he is meek and lowly, far
removed from all self-exaltation and violence, riding,
not upon a proud war-horse, but on the peaceable foal
of an ass, a strong king of peace, only by the power
of God mighty to help and save.1 Yet, for all this,
the picture of the Messias is not that of the Son of
Man, who had not where to lay His head ; Old Testa
ment prophecy invests him always rather, even in his
lowly circumstances, with God-given kingly glory.
On the other side, however, not even the delinea
tion of his glory comes up to the glory of the Messias
1 Zech. 9. 9 ; cp. Oehler, art. "Messias," pp. 417 f.

280 The Relation of Messianic Prophecy to
who has appeared in Jesus Christ. He is represented
as a human king, an offspring from the stem of David,
whose eminence is far above the position of all other
men, and whose personality has about it something
wonderful and mysterious. Although it is nowhere
indicated that he is to enter the world in an extra-
ordinarj' and wonderful manner,1 he yet, as the earthly
representative of the Divine King, and His instrument
in establishing His kingdom and exercising His govern-
men, stands in an absolutely unique and intimate rela
tionship to God, Whose Spirit rests upon him as on no
other, and Whose almighty power, wisdom, righteous
ness, and helpful grace work through him in such full
measure, that in and through his government God's
great name, i.e. His revealed glory, is made known. In
other words, God makes him the organ of His Self-
revelation, just as elsewhere He uses the " angel of
Jehovah." Hence even the Divine designation 'el
gibbor (God-hero) is one of the names ascribed to him ; 2
and hence also, even in a more general announcement
applied to the house of David,3 there occurs the expres
sion : " it shall be as God and the angel of Jehovah
before '' the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Both in the
Kingdom of God and in humanity the Messias assumes
thus a central position,4 not only as their head, but
also as the mediating organ whence proceed the judi
cial and saving operations and the Self-revelation of
1 We cannot, with Tholuck (in loc. cit. p. 170), regard Isa. 7. 14 as
a directly Messianic prophecy. On Micah 5. 1, cp. p. 185.
2 Isa. 9. 6. 3Zech. 12. 8. 4 Isa. 11. 10^

New Testament Fulfilment. 281
the Divine King.1 In that late apocalyptic aftershoot
of Old Testament prophecy, the Book of Daniel, finally,
the eminence of the Messias above all other men, and
his unique intimate relation to God, are emphasised
still more strongly, for, without reference to his origin,
he is described as one wearing a human form, and yet
coming on the clouds of heaven — a phrase applied else
where to Jehovah Himself.2 — And yet even this Old
Testament picture of the Messias falls strikingly short
of the New Testament God -Man;,3 great as is the
glory of the Messias, who mediates the revelation of
the name of Jehovah, it is yet not the glory of the
only-begotten Son of God ; the mystery that in the
Messias the eternal Son of God should enter the world
as man, to accomplish God's purpose of love, became
actually manifest only when the time was fulfilled. —
In Old Testament prophecy, however, there stands,
side by side with the reference to the future Messias, a
reference also to the final visible appearance of Jehovah
Himself, who comes to His people to judge, and to
perfect salvation, taking up His abode for ever in their
midst, and manifesting perfectly, and to all visibly,
His glory and grace.4 And this visible Self-revelation
1 Pp. 179 ff. , esp. pp. 182 ff. 2 Dan. 7. 13 f. See pp. 194 ff.
3 The difference would be less if it turned out that recent Christo,
logical representations, which hold to the conception of the God-Man,
but drop the idea of the personal pree'xistence of the Son, were a suf
ficient expression of the New Testament view. The kinship of the
latter to the Old Testament picture of the Messias— a kinship which,
in view of the specifically Old Testament form of Monotheism, cannot
be considered accidental— has not yet received proper attention.
4 Cp. pp. 201 f., and besides the passages there cited, the as yet less

282 The Relation of Messianic Prophecy to
of God is, according to Mai. 3. 1, one that is mediated
bythe angel of Jehovah, in whom is the name of God.1
But although thus this announcement approximates to
the other, which depicts in the Messias a like personal
organ of the Self-revelation of God, yet the two repre
sentations are nowhere resolved into each other;2 they
stand, unmediated, side by side, a proof-instance of the
ek mirous propheteuomen (" we prophesy in part ").-^-A
further proof of the same result lies in the fact that in
not even a single instance does the Messias appear as
the sole human organ of the saving operations of Jeho
vah, which effect the consummation. For, irrespective
of the Messianic passages which speak of a plurality
of successive Davidic kings, or of several3 saviours,
there stand alongside of the Messias, as trustees of a
saving mediatorial function, Deutero-Isaiah's servant of
God, i.e. the community of the Old Covenant, who, as
the service staff of Jehovah, are entrusted with a pro
phetic commission to humanity and Zechariah's Messi-
developed forms of the same prophecy in Joel 3. 21 and similar
passages ; further, in Zech. 9. 14, Isa. 4. 5 f., Zech. 14. 3 ff., and
Isa. 24. 23.
1 Ex. 23. 21.
2 Cp. Oehler, Prolegomena zur Theologie des Alten Testamentes,
pp. 67 f., and art. " Messias " in Herzog's Realencyklopadie, pp. 408 f.
— Passages such as Ezek. 34, esp. ver. 24, cannot be adduced in proof of
the contrary, as in them the Messias is placed beside God only as the
organ through whom Jehovah Himself exercises His pastoral oversight
of His flock, just as elsewhere God and the king are placed together
(Prov. 24. 21, Hos. 3.. 5, 1 Sam. 12. 3. 5, Ps. 2. 2). Such prophe
cies are therefore to be ranked only with the former of the two above
classes ; they say nothing of a visible appearance of Jehovah Himself.
On Dan. 10. 5 ff, see above, p. 196, footnote.
3 Obad. ver. 21.

New Testament Fulfilment. 283
anic high priest ; J so far as the function of executing
the saving purpose of God relating to the final con
summation is not immediately ascribed to Jehovah
Himself, it is divided among these agents.
(c) This implies that the fragmentary character of
the Messianic apprehensions of the prophets must
appear to a great extent eyen in the representation of
the Messianic work of salvation. The Messias is
indeed represented as the mediator, from whom pro
ceed the Divine Messianic saving operations ; but this
is so only in cases where these are considered as an
exercise of royal ruling functions in and for the
kingdom of God. Everywhere he appears only
as king, and his saving Messianic work consists in
the deliverance of the people of God from the power
of their enemies, the securing of the theocracy, the
perfect vindication therein of right and righteousness,
its extension over all peoples, the establishment upon
earth of the eternal kingdom of peace. By his kingly
rule the Kingdom of God becomes, what it is meant to
be, a kingdom in which evil is abolished for ever, and
none injures his neighbour; a kingdom filled with the
living apprehension of Jehovah, and therefore with
righteousness and peace.2 In short, the Messianic
salvation is mediated by him as regards all blessings
which accrue to the people of God by' a perfect represen
tation 3 of the royal government, and a full vindication
of the royal will of Jehovah. — On the other hand, Old
Testament prophecy knows nothing of a prophetic
1 Pp. 199 f. z Pp. 183 ff. 3 Uebemahme.

284 The Relation of Messianic Prophecy to
function of the Messias ; he indeed makes known the
will of God, makes it known even to the nations, but
not as a prophet, teaching, exhorting, comforting, but
as a king, commanding, ordaining, judicially dis
criminating and deciding.1 — Just as little .does Old
Testament prophecy represent the Messias as, in a
'proper sense, a high priest. It speaks, indeed, of his
enjoying a priestly nearness to Jehovah,2 but only in
illustration of the intimate relation of inward fellow
ship, in which he personally, as king, stands to God,
not in the sense of ascribing to him the function
of a priest, mediating salvation. It represents the
high priest as a type of the Messias,3 conceiving the
latter thus as a priest-king, but not again because
he offers sacrifices in expiation of the people's sin,
but only in so far as he is himself a person in the
highest degree consecrated to God, and entitled to
near access to Him, and in so far as he is the head
and representative of a priestly people, purified from
their sins and holy. Once more, it characterises the
government of the Messianic theocracy as both a kingly
and high-priestly, and yet a perfect unity ; but not by
assigning the high-priestly function to the Messias,
but by placing beside him on the throne a Messianic
high priest, who, one with him in mind and spirit,
shares the conduct of the government.4 — We have,
indeed, every reason to object to the assertion that
the suffering and expiatory sacrifice of Jesus Christ
1 Isa. 11. 10, Zech. 9. 10. 2 Jer. 30. 21.
3 Zech. chaps. 3 and 6. 4 Pp. 199 f.

New Testament Fulfilment. 285
were not foretold by the prophets, as though in this
matter there were no connexion at all between Old
Testament prophecy and New Testament fulfilment ;
no one who considers the relation of the two other
wise than with absolute superficiality 'will stand for
a moment to any such assertion. It is true, neverthe
less, that the prophecy of the Old Covenant does not
know of a Messias who suffers and dies : it is also true
that it nowhere ascribes to the Messias an official
function of mediating the forgiveness of sins, or effecting
an ethico - religious renewal of hearts} and that, in
general, it does not represent perfected personal fellow
ship ivith God in love as mediated by him. On the
other hand, however, it announces distinctly and
definitely not only— as already remarked — that God
will devise new and sufficient ordinances for expiating
His people's sin,2 and will effect the renewal of hearts
by His Spirit, but also that a mighty redemptive act
of God the Saviour, an act, exhibiting in the most
glorious way the superabundant grace of God for Israel
and the whole world, will yield at once salvation and
1 The title of the Messias in Jer. 23. 6, Yaheveh tsidhkenu (Jehovah
our righteousness), imports undoubtedly that Jehovah Himself will
through the Messias, as His organ, put His people into a condition
of perfected legal qualification (Rechtbeschaffenheit), and will by the
same means grant them the privilege of an actual justification
(Oerechtsprechung), consisting of deliverance, salvation, and security.
That what is meant by this, however, is the restoration by kingly
government of the legal constitution and well-being of the life of the
people as a whole, is clear from what is said in ver. 5 of the work of the
righteous branch of David. Hence it was possible, as in Jer. 33. 16,
to apply the name to the capital, as-representing the people of God.
2 Zech. 13. 1, Ezek. 36. 25.

286 The Relation of Messianic Prophecy to
consummation. It is true that in such predictions
the prophets speak of the impending deliverance from
the power of Assyria and Babylon, so that even here
prophecy does not lose its symbolico-typical character:
But this deliverance from the power of the world-
kingdoms, and from an extremity of judgment, is at
the same time a deliverance of the people of God from
all their distress ; just- with it is connected the full
forgiveness of sins, and by it also Israel is cured of
his blindness and hardness of heart. By it God
purchases His people anew to Himself for a possession;
it marks the accomplishment of a second higher elec
tion — an event in which for the first time the promise:
" I will be their God, and they shall be my people,"
attains full verification, in which, i.e., the perfect
fellowship with God of His people is for the first
time established. Hence it is frequently compared
with the first historical accomplishment of the election,
the deliverance of Israel from Egypt; and it is declared
that it will put this event, constituting as it did for
the Old Testament religion the foundation of cer
tainty regarding Israel's election, wholly into the
shade.1 But we have not yet exhausted the prophetic
apprehension of salvation. For prophecy announces
further a prophetic and priestly mediator of salvation,
through whom the saving purpose of God concerning
Israel and humanity reaches accomplishment. There
1 Cp. e.g. Isa. 10. 26, 11. 11. 16, chap. 12, Micah 7. 15,'many
passages in Deutero-Isaiah, and esp. Jer. 16. 14 f., 23. 7 f.

New Testament Fulfilment. 287
is the servant of God, as depicted to us by Deutero-
Isaiah : how equipped for his work by the Spirit of
Jehovah, in humility and silence, destroying nothing,
but rather as a saviour, comforting and helping, in
untiring patient endurance, and a hope that is strong
in faith, amid reproach and persecution, and in faith
fulness even unto death, he fulfils his prophetic
calling to attest God's truth, and to carry God's
salvation even to the ends of the earth ; how, himself
guiltless, he yet, as the representative of a people
devoted to the wrath. of God, takes upon himself the
guilt of all in love and patient willingness to suffer,
bears vicariously their chastisements, yields his life
as a guilt - offering for their defections, and thus, by
his vicarious punitive suffering, and by his inter
cession, secures the pardon and salvation of all; how,
finally, on this way of suffering and death he passes
to unfading glory in the royal dominion appointed for
him, and is owned by the whole world — a priestly
mediator, to whom all owe salvation. It is deep
insight, such as this, that prophecy displays into the
saving purpose of God ; yet even here knowledge is
but in part ; for the picture of this servant of God
stands beside that other picture of the Divinely-
powerful Messianic king without any mediating,
unifying link; indeed, the prophet himself does not
mean to depict a solitary individual entrusted with
the functions of a mediator of salvation, he seeks
rather to give, in the ideal personality of the servant
of God, a unified and individual representation of the

288 The Relation of Messianic Prophecy to
true congregation of God as the service - staff of
Jehovah. Add to which that, in the view of the
prophet, the vicarious punitive suffering of the servant
coincides, at least in part and in its beginnings, with
the sufferings which Jehovah's servants have already
endured in the Exile ; l and the deliverance from the
Exile, and the return to the holy land, are the
beginning at once of the glorification of the servant
of God, and of the salvation mediated through Him
to Israel,2 so that, even here, prophecy remains true
to its symbolico-typical character.
(d) Bring we, finally, together, in brief compass, the
main features of the prophetic view of the conditions
and historical course of the realisation of salvation,
omitting, however, what has been already expressly
treated. According to the entire testimony of Old
Testament prophecy, the Messianic salvation belongs,
in the first instance, to Israel as the elect people of
Jehovah's possession, and is extended to the heathen
only through him. Israel can, however, participate in
it only upon condition of his turning in penitence and
faith unreservedly and with his whole heart to his
God. Preceding, therefore, the saving redemptive act
of God, which effects the consummation of the theocracy,
is a judgment, and with that act itself a judgment is
associated. All the prophets predict this judgment-
day of Jehovah, and all agree in representing the
1 Pp. 214 f.
2 Even Delitzsch gives repeated and emphatic prominence to the
latter point in his exposition of Isa. 40-66; cp. e.g. his Commentary
on Isaiah (Germ.), 3rd ed. p. 514.

New Testament Fulfilment. 289
judgment as beginning with the people of God. The
object of the judgment, as regards Israel, is just to
effect this necessary preliminary of penitence and con
version. Frequently it is depicted how the judgment
will humble Israel, leading him to perceive and peni
tently confess his guilt, giving him a distaste of the old
ways of sin, and driving him in his extremity to seek
his- God. In particular, Micah1 — and, in further ex
position of his ideas, Deutero-Isaiah — describe in detail
how the people of God, given over to the power of the
Gentiles, penitently and willingly endure the judgment
as well-deserved, maintaining, however, at the same
time, an immovable faith and hope that the faithful
covenant-God will lift up His people from their fall,
and over against the scorn and mockery poured upon
their trust in the God of their salvation, will bril
liantly justify them. Along with this, however, it is
recognised that the object of the judgment, penitent
shame for past defections and thorough conversion,
will be fully attained only through the glorious exhibi
tion of the sin-forgiving redeeming grace of God. Such
is the view even of Hosea,2 but, in particular, of
Ezekiel,3 who knew from experience how little the
refractory spirit of Israel had been broken by the stress
of judgment, and therefore frequently emphasises the
assertion that God accomplishes His gracious deed of
redemption, in spite of Israel's undesert, solely for the
honour of His holy name, and for His truth's sake.
1 Micah 7. 7 ff. 2 Hos. 2. 18 f., 3. 5, 5. 15—6. 3, 14. 1. 8.
:1 Ezek. 20. 33 ff, 16. 63, 36. 31 f.
T

290 The Relation of Messianic Prophecy to
It is also the view of Deutero-Isaiah, who exhibits the
redemptive deed in the same light, and throughout
represents the full knowledge of the living God and
only Saviour as its object and fruit. — It is a further
consequence of the same perception, that both the last-
named prophets attest that only an impenitent irre-
sponsiveness to the gracious deed of redemption, only
the despising of the Messianic saving grace of God, carries
with it the decisive judgment of annihilation that is
associated with the work of redemption.1 — In not a
few prophecies, conversion appears as the first-fruit of
the outpouring of the Spirit. So, e.g., Zech. 12. 10 ff.
This remarkable prophecy determines, at the same time,
more precisely the principal object of Israel's penitent
mourning : his guilt culminates in the murder of a
prophet, and so the penitence expresses itself principally
in the mourning of all for one whom they have pierced.
A critical exposition of the passage forbids us to see
in this prophet the Messias, requiring us rather to
regard the murder as having already taken place at
the time of the prophecy ; still what we have here —
though under typical veil — is a definite recognition of
the fact, that, while Israel participates in the Messianic
salvation, he will have to mourn the worst result of a
deadly enmity cherished by him towards a servant of God
sent in witness of the truth. This recognition also we
find, again, in Deutero-Isaiah, in so far at least as his
prophecy also represents the suffering of the servant of
God as occasioned by the enmity of apostate Israelites,
1 Ezek. 20. 38, Isa. 48. 22, 50. 11, 57. 20 f., 65. 11 ff, 66. 24.

New Testament Fulfilment. 291
and in so far as the penitent and pardoned Israelites
acknowledge that they have failed to know, and have
lightly esteemed, the servant of God, when he took
the form of a sufferer, deeming him as one justly
chastened of God; but that now they have come to
know that he, the guiltless one, bore their guilt and
punishment.1 — Finally, prophecy also foretold that,
immediately preceding the advent of the Divine Judge
of His people and Eedeemer of His faithful ones, there
should come a great prophet as preparer of the way,
who, by his Divinely-powerful word, should summon
the people to repentance.2
Upon Israel's conversion and redemption there
follows the entrance of the Gentiles into the Kingdom
of God. This event also, according to the entire testi
mony of Old Testament prophecy, is prepared for,
conditioned, and accompanied by a judicial revelation
of the holy majesty of Jehovah, in destroying the
determined enemies of His kingdom, in filling the spared
remnant with fear and trembling before Him, and in
opening their eyes to the nothingness of their idols, and
to Jehovah's sole Godhead. The judgment which
produces such an effect strikes, moreover, in the first
instance, the world - power, to whose dominion the
people of God had been given over. On the other
hand, it is the association of this judgment with the
redemption of Israel, and the gift to him of the Messianic
salvation, which awakens in the Gentiles the longing
to be attached likewise to the God Whom they have
1 Isa. 53. 2 Mai. 3. 1, 4. 5 f.

292 The Relation of Messianic Prophecy to
come to know as the only strength and salvation.
In some individual prophecies 1 there is ascribed, further,
to the person and blessing-laden government of the
Divinely-powerful Messianic king, a certain attractive
power, which determines the nations to yield willing
subjection to him as God's representative on earth, and
match his royal requirements with a ready obedience.
In others it is announced that God Himself will make
known His will, and, by the exercise of His unerring
judicial power, set up among them His kingdom of
peace;2 that He will take away the veil of their ignorance
and blindness,3 and purify their lips from the defile
ment of the idol-names, so that they shall call upon
His name and serve Him in one mind.4 Another clear
and definite announcement of Old Testament prophecy
is, however, that the people of God will be instrumental
in bringing to the nations the true knowledge and
worship of God, and in executing upon the Gentiles
the saving purpose of the Divine mercy. As early as
Jeremiah 6 we find the beginnings of this perception, and
Deutero-Isaiah depicts repeatedly and in detail, how,
with an untiring endurance, ever ready to suffer, and
in faithfulness even unto death, the servant of God,
appointed a light to the Gentiles, fulfils a prophetic
witness-vocation, which God had in view even at the
time of Israel's election, until the sworn decree of
Jehovah, that every knee should bow, and every tongue
swear to Him, shall have been carried out, and the
1 E.g. Zech. 9. 10, Isa. 11. 10. 2 Isa. 2. 3 f.
3 Isa. 25. 7. * Zeph. 3. 9. B Jer. 12. 16, 30. 10.

New Testament Fulfilment. 293
salvation of God shall have reached the ends of the
earth. — But prophecy has too clear a perception of the
sin and alienation from God that prevail in the world,
and of the far-reaching nature of the contrast between
the Gentile world-kingdoms and the Kingdom of God, to
be able to present the prospect of a development to
this goal, that should be peaceful and without conflict
or further judgments. Hence it announces repeatedly,
as immediately preceding the last time, a final conflict
of the heathen world-power with the Kingdom of God,
ending in the complete victory of the latter, and a
destroying judgment upon the assailants. Such is
already the representation of Joel,1 Micah,2 and the
preexilian Zechariah.3 Jeremiah also prophesies that,
beyond the first judgment upon the idolatrous nations
hostile to Israel, after their pardon and restoration, and
after the knowledge of the true God has been offered
to them, and the door to His kingdom been opened, yet
a second judgment will overtake and destroy those who
persist in 'their obduracy.4 The destroying judgment
thus awaits the Gentiles also, only in so far as, in spite
of Jehovah's deeds of judgment and grace, they betray
an unwillingness to enter the kingdom of God through
impenitent persistence in their enmity against God and
His kingdom. The most remarkable form of this an
nouncement occurs in Ezekiel: after the first judgment
—which secures Israel against the surrounding nations 5
1 Joel 3. 9 ff. 2 Micah 4. 11 ff., 5. 5 f.
3 Zech. 12. 1 ff., 14. 3 ff, 12 ff. 4 Jer. 12. 17.
6 Ezek. 28. 24 ff.

294 The Relation of Messianic Prophecy to
— the Kingdom of God is set up in -perfected form for
Israel on the soil of the holy land, and the people of
God enjoy a long period of secure rest and deep peace.1
Only in the last days the most distant peoples, who
have not yet learned the power of Jehovah, assemble
in troops round Gog, king of Magog, for a last assault ,
upon the Kingdom of God, whereupon the last judg
ment of God falls upon them and their countries, — a
judgment in which He approves Himself as the Holy
One in the eyes of all peoples, in order that all may
know Him, and the people of God remain for ever
secured against all assaults and reproach.2 But
Deutero-Isaiah also holds out the prospect, after the
judgment upon the Chaldean world-power, and after
the people of God have begun to fulfil their prophetic
witness - vocation, of another and last assault of the
heathen peoples upon the city of God, and of a last
great judgment upon them, in consequence of which
even the most distant peoples will pay homage to
Jehovah, of Whose glory they will hear from fugitives.3
As Old Testament prophecy knows nothing of a
twofold coming of the Messias in the form of a servant
and in glory, it necessarily fails to bring clearly to
light the mustard-seed growth of the community of
the New Covenant, and the difference between the
first humble form of the Church militant and the
final glorious form of the Church triumphant. Usually
it associates rather the erection of the Kingdom of God
in its final form immediately with the redemptive act
1 Ezek. 38. 8. 11 f. 2 Ezek. chaps. 38 and 39. 3 Isa. 66. 18 ff.

New Testament Fulfilment. 295
of God, which brings about the era of salvation.
Nevertheless the fundamental law, which determines
the course of the development of the Kingdom of Christ,
is clearly expressed in the prophecy of Deutero-Isaiah.
God's ways are different from the ways of men; His
work attains accomplishment in quite another way
than human works. His people, whom He has called
as His servant to accomplish His saving purposes,
attain nothing by external power, by operations that
are noisy, violent, or that strike the eye. The power
that originates from Him must find its warrant in the
victory of His people over an external world-power, to
which yet they appear to be subject. Victory is won
only through the humble, selfrfenouncing, pain-defying
devotion of God's people to Himself, and to their
entrusted vocation of salvation and love, and through
the invisible power of God and His truth ; only on
the way of humiliation and suffering do the people of
God come to participate in their destined glory.
Finally, be it once again remembered that even
Old "Testament prophecy announces, as the closing
scene of the entire history of salvation, the resurrection
and accompanying final judgment of the dead (this
specially in the Book of Daniel), and the renewal and
glorifying of heaven and earth.
In all this we recognise the elements of New
Testament apprehension of the conditions of receiving
salvation, and of the course of development pursued by
the history of the Theocracy. In particular, we see
also the main lines of New Testament eschatology;

296 The Relation of Messianic Prophecy to
but here also the fragmentary character of the pro
phetic apprehensions, and the practice of veiling them
under types, make themselves in many ways apparent.
Thus it is shown that at every point the Messianic
prophecy of the Old Covenant fails to present any full
apprehension of God's saving purpose as carried out in
the New Covenant, and that so far from its doing so, the
accomplishment of that purpose is its first full revelation.
5. The actual execution of God's saving purpose in
and through Christ goes, according to the foregoing
exposition, far beyond the content of Messianic prophecy;
it is a more glorious revelation of the eternal love of
God, it offers a yet greater salvation than that which
prophecy places in prospect ; but it is none the less
on that account the fulfilment of prophecy. Not even
the unreserved acknowledgment of the fragmentary
character of the prophetic apprehensions, in consequence
of which the carrying out of God's saving purpose
appears distributed among various mediating agents of
salvation, implies in any degree a dissolution of the
bond which unites Old Testament prophecy and New
Testament fulfilment. For what is true of Messianic
prophecy in general and as a whole, viz. that it has its
God-intended and God-ordained ultimate reference to
Christ — giving it its place in historical revelation, is
true even of those Messianic prophecies which, in
their historical sense, do not treat of the person of the
Messias, but of the visible appearance of Jehovah for
final judgment and for redemption, or of the theocratic
community of the Old Covenant, or of the Messianic

Neiv Testament Fulfilment. 297
high priest. The decree of God, fixed before the
foundation of the world, that Christ should assume the
central position of sole mediator of all salvation in the
Kingdom of God and in humanity, implied that all
prophecies, proceeding from whatsoever different start
ing-points, should from the first point towards Him,
should converge towards Him as rays of light to their
focal point, and find in and through Him their unified
fulfilment.1 Even before the appearance of Christ we find at
least the beginnings of a way of interpreting prophecy
which recognises this ultimate reference to the great
design of historical revelation, and goes therefore beyond
the historical sense of individual predictions. The
gulf between the content of Old Testament prophecy
and New Testament fulfilment is at least in some
degree bridged over by the development of the religious
perceptions of Judaism in the post-canonical period.
We cannot enter here on a detailed proof of this.
The Judaeo - Alexandrian doctrine of the Logos, the
speculations 2 formulated in the Shekhina' and the
1 Cp. 2 Cor. 1. 20. Cp. Bertheau in loc. cit. 1859, p. 320 : " Many
are the threads of prophecy which, pervading the Old Testament in
motley complication, meet in the Mediator of the New Testament."
Oehler, Herzog's Real-Encyklopddie, art. "Messias," 1st ed. p.
417 ; 2nd ed. p. 648 : "It belongs to the character of prophecy to
present in its envisaging forms disjecta membra which are harmoniously
blended only in the course of the fulfilling history. The presupposi
tions of all the essential determinations of New Testament Christology
are to be found in the Old Testament, but the revealing word which
unites them organically and gives them their ultimate form, is given
only along with the accomplished revealing fact."
2 Theologoumena.

298 The Relation of Messianic Prophecy to
Memra! 1 (indwelling, word) 2 of the Palestinian theo
logy, and the conception of the Hypostatic Wisdom,
notoriously paved the way for the New Testament
doctrine of the Trinity, and in particular for its
doctrine of the Son ; and besides these we need give
prominence in a Christological reference only to an
idea which can claim so early a witness as the Book
of Enoch (48. 3. 6), that, viz., of the antemundane pre-
existence of the Messias, which approximates further
to the conception found in the Targum of Jonathan,
that the Messias was already present, and would emerge
from obscurity so soon as Israel repented;3 and, as
regards the opened Heaven of Christian hope, we may
refer to the doctrine of immortality of the later Judaism *
and especially to the frequent representations — occur
ring also in the Targum of Jonathan — of eternal life, and
of the second death, which the condemned, who are
consigned to Gehenna, must die. — The point of im
portance, however, for us to note in this connexion is
that even the oldest Jewish exegesis referred to the
Messias many passages which in their historical sense
contain no mention of him, and associated the ful
filment of all the promises of salvation with his
i Cp. thereon Ferd. Weber, System der altsynagogalen paldstin-
ischen Theologie, Leipzig 1880, pp. 174 ff.
2 [The technical terms, common in Old Testament post-canonical
times, for the manifested glory and the revelation of Jehovah. — Tr.]
3 Jonath. Micah 4. 8 : " And thou Messias of Israel, who art concealed
because of the sins of the community of Zion, to thee will the kingship
come," etc. Cp. besides, Weber in loc. cit. pp. 339 ff.
4 Cp. e.g. Jonath. Isa. 4. 3.— Isa. 22. 14, 65. 6. 15.— Hos. 14. 9,
Isa. 26. 15. 19 and other passages.

¦ New Testament Fulfilment. 299
appearance.1 In the Targum of Jonathan, which —
later additions apart — was certainly written before the
destruction of Jersualem, and rests upon a traditional
style of exegesis which reaches back into the pre-
Christian era, very many prophecies — among them the
most of those which are cited by the New Testament
writers — are stamped as Messianic. This is specially
true of Deutero - Isaiah's prophecies regarding the
servant of God. The thought of a suffering and dying
Messias is, of course, sedulously excluded, and every
thing that is said in Isa. 53 of the suffering of the
seryant of God is set aside by a strained interpretation.2
1 In his treatise, "Ueber doppelten Schriftsinn" (Stud. u. Krit.
1866, Pt. i, Cp. also his Alttest. Theol. 2nd ed. pp. 828 ff.), Herm.
Schultz has shown how many of the Psalms, specially the monarchical
ones, have acquired, through their use in public worship in the Old
Testament community, and on the basis of their original historical
sense, a second and higher Messianic sense.
2 Except that in Isa. 53. 12 the clause "because he hath poured out
his soul unto death " was allowed to remain. The paraphrast, however,
could hardly have intended it to be understood as referring to a literal
endurance of death (cp. Weber in loc. cit. p. 345). So far, moreover,
as individual passages, depicting the sufferings of the servant of God,
are referred to the misery of the Israelitish nation, this is less an
instance of strained exegesis (such as we find practised with the most
violent arbitrariness in 53. 3. 7. 9) than of keeping — though doubtless
in a very external way — to the historical sense ; it marks simply the
fact that the Messianic interpretation is not yet established ; the older
historical understanding of prophecy still asserts itself over against it
to a considerable extent. We take this opportunity of pointing out,
further, that in the passage, Sir. 48. 10 f. (which treats of the return
of Elias), use is made of Isa. 49. 6 along with Mai. 4. 5, which pre
supposes a reference or an accompanying reference of the prophecy
regarding the servant of God to the prophetic office, or, more exactly,
to the prophetes pistbs, faithful prophet (1 Mace. 14. 41), expected
in accordance with Deut. 18. 15, or, otherwise, the revival of ancient
prophecy in the returning Elias.

300 The Relation of Messianic Prophecy to
Such interpretations, however, always rest, along with the
designation of the future aeon (alma' dhe'dthe = hdolam
habbd') as the time of the Messias,1 upon the supposition
that the Messias has in general to be viewed as the
mediator of the salvation destined for the people of
God, and especially of the forgiveness of sin.2-^-Hence
it cannot surprise us that, on the basis of such a mode
of exegesis, transcending as it does the historical sense
of prophecy, and laying hold of its ultimate design in
the scheme of historical revelation, Zacharias should
regard the prophecy of the coming of the Lord to His
people,3 and Simeon, the promises relating to the ser
vant of God,4 as finding their fulfilment in the Messias.
Yet all this was but a preparatory initiation of the
perception that all the promises of God were to become
"yea and amen" in the person of the one Messianic
mediator of salvation.5 For this perception wells forth
for the first time with perfect clearness from the
Messianic self-consciousness of Jesus Christ. As the
Son, who has the full confidence of His Father as
regards the latter's mind and intentions, He, in general,
so construes the word of Old Testament Scripture as
to bring forth the eternal thoughts of God from their
temporary national veil. The word of prophecy, in
particular, He treats in this way. He understands
and interprets it as One conscious of having been
appointed sole Mediator of salvation before the founda
tion of the world, and of having now come to accom-
1 Jonathan, 1 Kings 4. 33. 2 Cp. Jonathan, Isa. 53. 4.
Luke 1. 76. * Luke 2. 31 f. 5 2 Cor. 1. 20.

New Testament Fulfilment. 301
plish the whole saving counsel of the Father regarding
humanity. In this consciousness He makes Himself
the Subject of all the saving mediatorial activities and
experiences which prophecy predicated of various sub
jects, and which were to perfect the Kingdom. — By His
confirmatory acceptance of the confession that He is
the Christ1 and of the title " Son of David," by His
Self-designation as the " Son of Man " and the " Son of
God " (albeit the content of these names is not con
fined to their Messianic sense), by His sworn confession
before the Council,2 and by His festive Messianic
entrance into Jerusalem conformably to the words of
the prophecy, Zech. 9. 9, He declares the prophecies
of the coming Messias as, above all others, those which
are in part fulfilled and in part about to be fulfilled in
His own person and work as the King of the heavenly
Kingdom. Of course, however, the picture of the
Messianic King which emerges from the depths of His
self-consciousness is different from that of the prophets ;
the two pictures are just as distinct from each other
as are the Old Testament delineation of an external
theocracy and the New Testament idea of the Kingdom
of heaven ; but, on the other hand, they have the same
internal mutual relations as these latter. The Messi
anic King of the Kingdom of God, through whom
God's kingly rule and His judicial and saving work are
mediated, has, in Christ's sense, first of all only an
invisible spiritual power, founded especially upon the
spiritual power of the truth which He came into the
1 Matt. 16. 16 f. 2 Matt. 26. 63 f.

/
302 The Relation of Messianic Prophecy to
world to attest and authenticate; His glory, at first
mainly ethical, is as yet concealed, recognisable only
to the eye of faith ; His Kingdom, that is not of this
world, is, in the first instance, set up inwardly in the
heart; His way to glory and universal recognition
leads through the deepest humiliation in His suffering
of death ; and, even after all power has been given
Him in heaven and on earth, His kingly government,
by means of which He leads His people to meet the
End on the same road that He has gone Himself, is
manifest first of all only to the faith that looks into
the invisible world, until at the end of days He will
return in. full revelation of His kingly glory to judge
His enemies and set up His Kingdom in its perfect
form. — We may say that the difference between this
picture of the Messianic king and that indicated by
the prophets results mainly from the unification and
prganic combination of the idea of the Messias and
the idea of the servant of God, effected in the self-con
sciousness of Christ, and that it is only'in the announce
ments of the second coming of Christ in His glory
that the features of the prophetic picture of the Messias
emerge in their full brilliance.
Christ relates also to Himself in the same way what
is prophesied of the servant of God, i.e. the theocratic
community of the Old Covenant, who were in Jehovah's
service. His explanation of Isa. 61. 1 f. in the syna
gogue at Nazareth : " This day is this scripture fulfilled
in your ears,"1 already implies this ; and of the saying
1 Luke 4. 21.

New Testament Fulfilment. 303
in Isa. 53. 12, He says expressly that it must be ful
filled in Himself.1 But even in the vaguer references
to Old Testament prophecy regarding His sufferings
and death, and the glory that should follow,2 He has
without doubt, besides Ps. 22, the prophecy regarding
the servant of God in Isa. 53 chiefly in view. He is,
consciously to Himself, the personal Mediator of salva
tion, Who has come forth from Israel and is a member
of that nation, in Whom the theocratic community of
the Old Covenant fulfils the prophetic and priestly
calling entrusted to it, and in Whom, therefore, all the
Divine thoughts of the substitutionary sufferings of the
servant of God and their fruit and reward necessarily
find their fullest realisation. In Him, as Centre of
the theocratic community of the Old Covenant, its
God -ordained Head and mediatorial Eepresentative,
the Bearer of its prophetic and priestly office for
humanity, the prophecy regarding the servant of God
attains the goal Divinely intended in the scheme of
historical revelation. Thus the ideal collective person
ality becomes in the fulfilment an individual Person,
in Whom what was said of the former must now be
fulfilled. Hence it is with good ground that the
apostles also find all the predictions of the prophetic
ministry3 and the vicarious death4 of the servant of
God fulfiUed in Christ.
But Christ also regards the prophecy of the visible
, i Luke 22. 37.
2 Mark 9. 12, Matt. 26. 54, Luke 24. 25 ff. 44 ff.
3 Matt. 12. 17 ff. 4 Acts 8. 32 ff., 1 Pet. 2. 22 ff.

304 The Relation of Messianic Prophecy to
appearance of Jehovah in the angel of the covenant for
judgment and redemption as fulfilled in His person.
This appears without ambiguity in His express declara
tion that His own forerunner, John the Baptist, was
the Elias who, according to prophecy, should prepare
the way for the coming Jehovah.1 When, in the light
of the fact that the highest expression of hostility to
the truth of God that converted Israel has penitently
to bewail consists in the crucifixion of the Messias,
who is at the same time the greatest of the God-sent
prophets, the prophecy in Zech. 12. 10 ff. also is
stripped of its typical veil and referred to Christ,2 and
when we say that He is not only the Messianic King
but also the Messianic High Priest whom Zechariah's
prophecy had placed beside the former, we may see in
such procedure simply a further application and carry
ing out of Christ's own apprehension of prophecy.
Similarly, all the New Testament indications of the
fulfilment in Christ of such Scriptures as those in
which we can recognise Messianic prophecies only
because of their essentially typical structure, are but a
further carrying out of the understanding of prophecy
offered by Christ Himself. They also find footing in
the certainty that, according to the eternal counsel of
God, Christ is the accomplisher of the whole saving
1 Matt. 11. 10-14, 17. 10 ff. This important feature in the Self-
testimony of the Synoptical Christ, which, not less than the much-
discussed passage, Matt. 11. 27, has points of connexion with the
Self-testimony of the Johannine Christ, has not yet^been properly
attended to.
2 John 19. 37, Rev. 1. 7.

New Testament Fulfilment. 305
purpose of God, and that therefore also the prophetic
substance of all those Scriptures which express God's
eternal thoughts of salvation in application to definite
historical or specifically Old Testament circumstances
(express them, therefore, in typical veil), finds its God-
intended goal of ultimate reference in Christ as the
end of historical revelation, — a reference which, of
course, frequently became apparent to the apostles
themselves only after the event, as, indeed, is several
times expressly remarked,1 and which they for the
most part, discarding the historical sense, keep ex
clusively in view.2 Hence also the plan they usually
1 John 20. 9, 2. 22.
2 A more detailed exposition of the subject of the New Testament
citations of Old Testament prophecies lies beyond the domain of our
task. We add here, in brief appendix, only some general remarks.
The New Testament writers, as also Christ Himself, throughout regard
the word of Old Testament Scripture solely from the point of view of
au interest in such apprehension of saving truth as is of immediate
importance to the life that proceeds from God and is in Him. It does
not therefore at all occur to them to ask how the prophets themselves
understood their own predictions, or how they were necessarily under^
stood by their contemporaries. Their sole concern is with what the
Spirit of God attests in them for themselves, for their contemporaries,
and for all times, i.e. with the eternal Divine substance of the word of
Old Testament Scripture ; and they therefore regard this substance
entirely in the light of New Testament knowledge given in Christ.
Thus, in particular, their understanding of prophecy is throughout
conditioned and determined by its fulfilment. This by no means im
plies that their exegesis is arbitrary. It is only here and there that
there occur individual instances of interpretations and Scripture-proofs,
whose validity and cogency we must altogether disallow, and these are
just the cases in which the New Testament writers employ the modes
of exegesis prevalent among their Jewish contemporaries — particularly
the Alexandrian method of allegorising— with the view of offering a
more learned and scholarly style of Scripture-proof (Gal. 3. 16, 4. 21 ff. ;
also some of the minutiae of Heb. 7). Apart from these exceptions,
U

306 The Relation of Messianic Prophecy to
adopt in the citation of such passages of not naming
the human authors as those who have uttered the
particular saying, but of using such formulas of citation
as : " It is written," " The Scripture saith," " God hath
spoken," " The Holy Ghost witnesseth," etc., has a
reasonable ground of justification, for the sense in
which they apprehend such texts is precisely not their
historical sense, but is one rather that corresponds
with the ultimate reference of the prophecies to Christ
as the end of historical revelation, a reference that is
intended by God or the Spirit of God.
We may add to the above a brief reference to a
their usual style of exegesis does not consist in an allegorising intro
duction of alien matter into the text of Scripture, but in a deeply
thoughtful, Divinely -inspired exhibition of the inmost kernel, the
ideal, eternal substance which, though concealed in a times-adapted
veil, it really contains. They do indeed find in the text of Scripture a
meaning far transcending that which is discoverable by a strictly his
torical mode of exposition, and they regard this meaning as the true
one, the one that is intended by the Spirit of God ; but this meaning
is not introduced arbitrarily ; it stands in inner connexion with the
historical meaning ; and the apostles did but follow an inner necessity,
did but act in conformity with an objective law, of which, of course,
they were not themselves as a rule clearl}' conscious, when, in the light
of the New Covenant, they understood Scripture texts in this higher
sense. The inner connexion of their interpretation, given from the
standpoint of fulfilment, with the historical sense of the passages cited,
is supplied, on the one hand, by the ideal substance which, whether
compressed into Old Testament and times-adapted forms or applied to
definite circumstances, is really present in the words of Scripture ; and,
on the other, by the Divine teleology, dominating and informing the
history of salvation, in accordance with which the character of a pre-
type of the New Covenant belongs to the entire Old Covenant, inas
much as all the Divine thoughts, while attaining essential realisation
in Christ, are realised only temporarily and imperfectly in the Old
Covenant. It was Christianity that first brought to light the essential
features of this typological, as distinguished from the allegorical, mode
of exegesis. While historical exegesis ascertains the sense that the

New Testament Fulfilment. 307
difficulty that might possibly be occasioned by our
assertion that the unifying and organic comprehension
of the fragmentary glimpses of truth offered in the
Messianic prophecy of the Old Testament was accom
plished only through its fulfilment in Christ. It might
be said, in that case the end of prophecy could have
been attained only very imperfectly as regards the
measure of insight available for the contemporaries of
Jesus. In particular, the offence at Christ's servant-
form and the death on the cross was very excusable if
Old Testament .prophecy did not really know of a
suffering and dying Messias, and if the prophetic pic-
text of Scripture had for the authors and their contemporaries, this
typological exposition exhibits the significance which it acquires in the
light of the whole history of salvation as attaining its goal in Christ ;
it ascertains its ultimate point of reference, as decreed in the counsel of
God, which was hidden, but became manifest when the time was ful
filled ; and, whether to the consciousness of the expositor himself or
not, it has always as its substratum the historical sense, inasmuch as
it does not, like the allegorising method, start from some external and
casual point in the Scripture text, but grows from an insight into its
innermost kernel. — Regarded as a whole, the Hermeneutic of the New
Testament is just such a sound, objectively legitimate, typological
mode of exegesis. The Old Testament economy constituted still the
normal and immediate intellectual horizon and sphere of experience of
the New Testament writers ; they were at home in the inmost sanctuary
of the Old Covenant. Hence they had also a steady and clear eye for
the eternal Divine thoughts which compose the kernel of the text of
Old Testament Scripture. Their use of Scripture, moreover, was
simple, devoid of exegetical art. They confine themselves, as a rule,
to the employment of individual passages as Scripture-proofs — pas
sages, however, whose eternal truth -substance attested itself of itself to
their Christian consciousness, and in which prophetic testimonies of
the New Testament salvation came, wholly unbidden, to view. Hence
it would not have been easy for them to refer, in a wholly arbitrary
way, just what texts they pleased to Christ and His Kingdom. Eor a
more detailed treatment of this subject, cp. Tholuck's work, Das
Alte Testament im Neuen Testaments.

308 The Relation of Messianic Prophecy to
ture of the Messias corresponded so little with that of
the Son of Man. For a first answer to this objection, be
it yet again remembered that, at the time of Christ's
appearance, the perception that even the prophecy
regarding the servant of God pointed ultimately to. the
one Messianic mediator of salvation, had attained at
least its initial stage. But, specially, it has to be in
sisted that the recognition and acknowledgment of
Jesus as the Christ could not have rested, and ought
not to have rested, on the perception of an external
coincidence of prophecy and fulfilment. They were
necessarily associated with ethical conditions and pre
requisites. It was not the fragmentary character of
Messianic prophecy and the one-sidedness of the pro
phetic picture of the Messias, but the absence of these
ethical prerequisites, in particular their carnal disposi
tion, which clung to what was earthly and external,
and their self-righteousness, which hindered the Jews
and their leaders from recognising the • promised
Messias in the Son of Man, and made His servant-form
and His suffering of death to them an occasion of offence
and resentment. Wherever, on the other hand, those
ethical prerequisites were present, prophecy could
fulfil its end in spite of its fragmentary character. He
who was content to learn in humility from the pro
phecy concerning the servant of God who passed to
glory through the suffering of death, how and by what
means the Theocratic community should fulfil their
calling to accomplish the saving purpose of God, and
on what road they should reach victory and their

New Testament Fulfilment. 309
destined glory, — such an one was already prepared for
the event which brought before him in Jesus the
promised Messias, not, first of all, in the kingly glory
of the prophetic picture of the Messias, but in the
obscurity and lowliness of the servant of God. Hence,
to those who in the right frame of mind waited for the
Kingdom of God and the redemption of Israel, neither
the servant-form of Christ nor His suffering of death
offered any hindrance to their recognising in Him the
promised Saviour, for indeed the word of prophecy
gave them just the light they needed on these points,
and helped to remove the offence which the death on
the- cross had occasioned to them also. — The whole
character, moreover, of Messianic prophecy is opposed
to the possibility of an apprehension of its fulfilment
in Christ originating in the perception of an external
agreement between prophecy and event obvious to the
eye of flesh. For, as we have seen, Messianic prophecy
is not what the older supernaturalism imagined, essen
tially prediction of the individual concrete events of
the New Testament record of fulfilment, but announce
ment — announcement in great measure in typical veil
— of the eternal saving thoughts of God which were
to be accomplished in the New Covenant. Its ideal
substance, therefore, is the bond which unites prophecy
to its fulfilment ; and only he who was able to grasp this
ideal substance — these Divine thoughts of salvation — ¦
as what was essential in an apprehension which did
not cling to the surface or to the letter, but penetrated
to the depths of the written word, — an apprehension

310 The Relation of Messianic Prophecy to
surely always ethically conditioned,: — was in a position
also to recognise the that and the how of the fulfilment
of prophecy in and through Christ.
6. Still we must- not fail to give here some special
prominence to the fact that, even as regards the con- ¦
crete historical realisation of the saving thoughts of
God, and in relation to a considerable number of par
ticulars here and there, there was exhibited a remark
able coincidence between prophecy and fulfilment. We
do not mean that where this is the case the character
of Messianic prophecy is so altered as to be less in
need of psychological media or less subject to historical
conditions, nor do we suppose the Spirit to have in
some exceptional way concretely envisaged to the
prophets certain individual historical facts of the New
Testament fulfilment, — the general rule being that
such envisaging is possible only in the case of events
which lay actually within their times-horizon -1 — what
we do mean is that such instances of special coinci
dence do not occur apart from deep ideal reasons. In
particular, they arise from the fact that the same
principle of Divine government — prevailing alike in
the world and in the Kingdom of God^which reveals
itself in the history of Israel at the time of the origin
of a prophecy, and hence also assumes such prominence
in the consciousness of the prophet as to inform the
content of his prophecy and give it its peculiar stamp,
has a similar determining effect upon the course and
form of the fulfilling history of the New Testament.
1 Pp. 142 ff.

New Testament Fulfilment. 311
The circumstance, however, that in several instances
the coincidence — thus originated — between prophecy
and fulfilment is of so special a nature as to include
even particular external incidents, can hardly, we
judge, be considered by a living faith in God other
wise than as Divinely - intended, — as, so to speak,
sublimated into the plan in accordance with which
God has associated together and set in reciprocal
relation the revelation and the history of salvation.
Such coincidences are designed as finger-posts, pointing
to the deeper and more essential connexion between
prophecy and fulfilment — as external holdfasts, aiding
a. still weak understanding, and attracting attention to
the fulfilment of prophecy in such a way as to en
courage a more penetrating investigation into the
nature of the bond that unites these two correlates of
historical revelation. — Such was obviously the design
of Christ in arranging His Messianic processional entry
into Jerusalem, in literal conformity to the words of
Zech. 9. 9. Take for another instance of coincidence
Micah's prophecy,1 that the Messias will proceed from
Bethlehem,- — a prediction in which the special concern
of the prophet is to insist that, after the Divine
judgment has plunged it into the lowest depths of
degradation, the kingship of the Davidic house will
rise, in the person of the Messianic king, a second
David, from its deep humiliation to the highest eleva
tion of power and glory, starting, in like manner, a
second time from the small inconspicuous Bethlehem ;
1 Micah 5. 2.

312 The Relation of Messianic Prophecy to
and yet a prediction which, if the historicity of the
record upon the point can be otherwise established,1
was fulfilled not only in its ideal substance but also
literally. — Quite unassailable, however, by historical
criticism is the remarkable coincidence of the New
Testament record of fulfilment with the prophecy in
Isa. 9. 1 f.,2 according to which the light of the Mes
sianic salvation was to shed its rays first upon the
inhabitants of the tribal districts of Zebulon and
Naphtali, the region by the Sea of Gennesaret, and
the Jordan. — An equally remarkable agreement, affect
ing even details, between the record of New Testament
fulfilment and the words of Old Testament Scripture is
to be found, moreover, in relation to several points
which can be regarded as prophecies referring to Christ
only, in virtue of their typical significance.8 The
most striking instance of this is the twenty-second
Psalm, which presents to every Christian eye an un
mistakable picture of the crucified Christ surrounded
by His triumphant foes.4 The agreement also of the
picture of the servant of God, as delineated in prophecy,
with the picture of Christ extends to several quite
minute points.5 — The New Testament writers acted
thus in conformity with the relation actually obtaining
1 For arguments establishing the historicity of the tradition of the
birth of Jesus in Bethlehem, see B. Weiss' Das Leben Jesu, i. pp.
236 ff.
2 Cp. R.V. [Tr.] with Matt. 4. 13 ff., and, in re, Hengstenberg,
Christologie, ii. pp. 88 f.
3 Cp. Oehler, art. "Weissagung," p. 656.
4 Cp. Matt. 27. 43. 46, John 19. 24, with Ps. 22. vv. 8, 1 and 18 resp.
5 Isa. 42. 2 f., 50. 5 ff, 52.. 14 f., and chap. 53.

New Testament Fulfilment. 313
between prophecy and fulfilment when they found the
fulfilment of Old Testament prophecy in many cases,
even in the minutiae of the evangelic narrative, albeit
that undoubtedly, in the plenitude of their conviction
that the entire Old Testament prophesied of Christ,
they gave to the perception of coincidence between pro
phecy and fulfilment a somewhat wider range than
can be conceded to it from the point of view of a
correct historical exposition of the words of Old
Testament Scripture. — Of a somewhat different kind
is the agreement of the concrete historical realisation
of the saving thoughts of God with the content of
prophecy, which results necessarily from the organico-
historic connexion subsisting between the Old and the
New Covenant. To this class we reckon, in particular,
the Israelitish and Davidic descent of Christ, and the
circumstances that the Holy Land constituted the
sphere, of His ministry, the Holy City the princi
pal scene of the events accomplishing salvation, and
an elect from Israel the nucleus of the Christian
Church. 7. Through Christ the Messianic prophecy of the
Old Covenant fulfils itself further in His community
and in His Kingdom. This fulfilment, moreover,
concerns not merely its announcement regarding the
benefits of salvation which are to accrue to the
people of God, and, in general, regarding the perfect
condition of the people and kingdom of God, but also
what it says of the destination and calling of the
people of God, and the important consequences which

314 The Relation of Messianic Prophecy to
flow from their realisation. For the prophecy regard
ing the servant of God did not by any means find a
fulfilment adequate to its entire content even in the
prophetic ministry, sufferings, death, and glorification
of Christ. Inasmuch as it does not, in its historical
sense, treat of one personal mediator of salvation, but
of the theocratic community of the Old Covenant, its
ultimate reference in the scheme of historical revela
tion is not exclusively to Christ, but also to His
Church ; and the eternal thoughts of God, which it
contains, must find fulfilment, as in Christ, so also in
it. As the human organ, used by Christ to execute
God's purpose of grace towards humanity, the Church
learns from prophecy x her destination and calling to
carry the salvation of God to the ends of the earth,
as is illustrated by the conduct of Paul and Barnabas 2
in certifying their commission to preach salvation in
Christ to the Gentiles by an appeal to Isa. 49. 6, —
thus interpreting prophecy in the light of the New
Covenant in a way not less justifiable than the mode
of referring its utterances to the Messias. In prophecy
the Church may read her instructions as to how to
perform the work of the Lord ; not by the employ
ment of external power ; not by a clamorous, violent,
ostentatious activity, but by conserving in the service
of love and truth her God - rooted strength over
against the power of a world to which externally she
is subject, in enduring patience and self-denying, all-
1 [I.e. specially the prophecy concerning the Servant of God. — Tr.]
2 Acts 13. 46 f.

New Testament Fulfilment. 315
sacrificing devotion to the Lord and the vocation
accepted from Him. It is in prophecy that the
Church's progress through suffering and conflict to
victory and glory is typically depicted, and even what
is said of the vicarious and mediatorial significance of
the sufferings of the servant of God — albeit that its
full sense was realised only in Christ — has yet, to a
certain extent, applicability also to the sufferings of
Christians for righteousness and the gospel's sake.1
As Messianic prophecy points ultimately to the
end of the ways of God and the perfected form of His
Kingdom upon earth, the New Testament people of
God must still await its complete fulfilment through
Christ. Christ Himself has yet to be manifested, as
the Messianic King, in His glory ; His community
has yet to become in full measure what the word of
prophecy declares regarding the final condition of the
people of God, and His Kingdom has yet to be
extended over the whole earth and all peoples. The
entire historical development of the Church of Jesus
Christ is a continuous fulfilment of Old Testament
prophecy, a fulfilment that grows gradually but
constantly towards completeness; indeed, precisely
that to which from the first Old Testament prophecy
gives a quite peculiar prominence, and which, usually,
it associates immediately with Jehovah's Messianic deed
of redemption, — the erection, viz., of the kingdom of
God upon earth in a form fully adequate, even in
external respects, to its glory, — is in New Testament
1 Cp. Col. 1. 24, Eph. 3. 13.

316 The Relation of Messianic Prophecy to
fulfilment set at the end. In this reference we might
say that the history of fulfilment strikes out an
essentially opposite path to that actually traversed by
the development of Messianic prophecy. While the
latter, on the whole, advances from the conception of
the external glory of the perfected Kingdom to the
deeper perception of its inner essence and character,
and the preliminary conditions of its establishment,
in the former the Kingdom of God is founded first
inwardly in the heart, then comes its inner growth,
and it is only in the end that the inner glory of the
Church of God attains external and visible presenta
tion.1 — But even the prophecies of the final conflicts
of the world-empires with the Kingdom of God and
of God's final judgments upon His enemies are re-
assumed by New Testament prophecy as oracles
pointing to the final stage of historical development.
This is a matter of course with such eschatological
announcements as those regarding the resurrection of
the dead, the new heaven and new earth, etc. Thus,
even the Christian community has still to await the
complete fulfilment of the prophecies of the Old
Covenant. As we have seen, however, we must
beware of considering all the unfulfilled features of
prophecy — even those which are not reassumed in
New Testament prophecy — as predictions still await
ing actual fulfilment. — Similarly, as against a mis
leading path, a warning must be uttered against
seeking in prophecy for definite preannouncements to
1 Cp. Auberlen, Abhandl. p. 790.

New Testament Fulfilment. 317
solve, as on the authority of the word of God, in
dividual problems that may emerge in the course
of the Church's development. Neither Old nor New
Testament prophecy offers help of this kind ; on the
contrary, the only method used by prophecy to shed
light upon the course of theocratic development that
lies beyond the period which it can claim as its own,
is to reveal the fundamental principles and the
ultimate aim of the Kingdom of God. If prophecy is
not to become a deceptive light, if it is to be con
served as a "sure word of prophecy," to which we
" do well " to give heed " as unto a light that shineth
in a dark place," x we must use it aright, so use it, i.e.,
as the prophets themselves used the prophecies of
their predecessors. And, as we have seen, they used
them, not by way of discovering from them the hidden
issues of particular events of their own time or the
immediate future, but by way of extracting from them
the fundamental thoughts and laws of the Divine
government of the world and the fundamental
features of God's sovereign plan, and of applying
these to the circumstances of their own time. By such
a use of prophecy they came, so to speak, to see the
trend of actual events.2 If we follow the precedent they
have set us, the Divine word of prophecy will yield us
the service it is intended to yield ; we have in it " a
sure standard of judgment," s applicable to the con
ditions, efforts, and movements of our own time, and
1 2 Pet. 1. 19. 2 Dadurch wurden sic iiber diese orientiert.
» Cp. Beetheau (1859), pp. 331 f.

318 The Relation of Messianic Prophecy to
are not in danger of being carried headlong by the
prevailing currents of the time, or of becoming the
victims of false hopes or groundless fears. We learn
more and more to regard contemporary history in that
higher light in which it also appears as part of the
road that conducts to the final goal of the ways of
God. — As to particular periods of Theocratic develop
ment yet to come in the hidden counsel of God, — ¦
about which so many expositors of the Apocalypse
pretend to know, — we know and need know nothing.
Enough surely that in watchfulness, readiness, and
joyous hope we look stedfastly towards that final
goal, regarding the history of our own time as part of
the road thither. Not even the prophets themselves
in their own time knew more.

A review of our entire argument is surely, fitted to
yield the conviction that we lose nothing by a strict
adherence to the historical mode of expounding Old
Testament prophecy, and that, in particular, the beliefs,
that salvation through Christ was preannounced by
the Divine prophetic word throughout a series of
centuries, and that all the promises of God are " yea
and amen " in Christ, remain unshaken. We were not
at all able to ascribe to the prophets any such great
measure of knowledge of the saving purpose of God, or
to acknowledge any such great number of individual
prophecies as definitely referring to Christ, as those

New Testament Fulfilment. 319
are wont to do who continue to look at prophecy
from the standpoint of a one-sided supernaturalism,
or are, at any rate, still influenced by the after-effects
of this tendency. Yet the Divine purpose, which so
ordered historical revelation that all Old Testament
prophecy should point ultimately to Christ, has stood
our tests also. But, it may be asked, does our
somewhat roundabout procedure — starting, as it does,
from an exact definition of the historical sense of
prophecy — yield any positive or more than merely
theoretic gain ?
Do not those come by a much shorter road to the
same goal who say, with Hengstenberg and Keil x :
The question, what thoughts the prophets had, as the
result of inquiry regarding the oracles they were
inspired by the Spirit of Christ to utter, is not of any
special importance ; our only business is to look in the
light of New Testament fulfilment to what the Spirit
of Christ has announced and revealed to us in the
utterances of the prophets ? May we not, moreover,
appeal to the example of Christ and the apostles, who
also did not investigate the historical sense of the
words of Old Testament Scripture, but looked only to
what the Old Testament was found to say when
considered in the light of the New? Our first
answer is : Our relation to the Old Testament is
somewhat different from that of Christ and His
apostles, in so far as we have not an acquaintance
1 Hengstenberg, Christologie, iii. 2, p. 204. Keil, Kommentar
zu Hesekiel, p. 521, note.

320 The Relation of Messianic Prophecy to
with the Old Testament economy, based, as theirs was,
upon immediate intuition and experience, and, in
particular, we should incur the charge of a blinded
self-exaltation, if we were to credit ourselves with the
same deep insight which enabled the Lord Himself
to grasp and to exhibit with distinctness and certainty
the eternal thoughts of God contained in the words of
Old Testament Scripture. True, our principal concern
also in the practical use of the Old Testament is with
what the word of prophecy says to us, and we have
therefore to understand and expound it in the light of
the New Covenant ; this, however, we cannot do with
clearness and certainty, if we have not first ascertained
its historical sense. Failure in the latter respect leads
exegesis astray. Surely the history of Old Testament
exegesis in the Christian Church testifies only too
loudly to the extent to which, in consequence of the
neglect of the historical sense of prophecy, genuine
typological exposition degenerated into an uncertain
and arbitrary, an allegorising and dogmatising Her
meneutic, introducing everywhere — even in the wrong
place — references to Christ and properly New
Testament apprehensions, and often enough thereby
overlooking the Divine thoughts actually contained
in the word of Scripture; so dissipating its inherent
force.1 There is no security from the risk of falling
into the errors of this Hermeneutic apart from a clear
1 Cp. my lecture, Ueber die besondere Bedeutung des Alten Testa
mentes fur die religiose Erkenntniss und das religiose Leben der
christlichen Gemeinde (Halle 1864), pp. 23 ff.

New Testament Fulfilment. 321
insight into the historical character of prophecy, and
the relation of its historical sense to New, Testament
fulfilment. Similarly, it is this insight alone which
can save us from that Judaising over -estimation of
the specifically Old Testament * envisaging forms
contained in prophecy which, in a practical regard, is
by no means inconsiderable, as it not only, in par
ticular, influences hurtfully the mission to the Jews,
but has also — as shown by certain sectarian move
ments in our own time — proved itself capable of
leading to fantastic errors in other directions.
Furthermore, we consider ourselves warranted in
asserting with confidence that our plan of doing full
justice to the historical sense of Messianic prophecy
brings the gain of a more complete apprehension of
the Divine revelation, preparatory to Christ and His
Kingdom, which it contains, as well in its historical
reality as in its true character and wonderful glory —
a glory worthy of the Divine educative wisdom. For
the reader, who, in unconcern for the historical sense,
imports into the utterances of prophecy apprehensions
which came to light only with the New Testament
fulfilment, these utterances neither disclose their full
living substance, nor is there any accompanying
feeling that he stands on secure historical ground ;
such a reader, indeed, renounces from the first a clear,
historically-grounded apprehension of the wonderful
contrivances which the educative wisdom of God
employed to train Israel for the New Covenant. The
more, on the other hand, we learn to understand the
x

322 The Relation of Messianic Prophecy to
individual prophecies in their organico - genetic con
nection with the religious life of the Old Testament
covenant-people, and in their relativity to the concrete
historical circumstances of the time of their origin,
the more do they give us the impression of the fresh
forceful vitality peculiar to what is historically actual.
And when we come, further, to see how these indi
vidual prophecies, starting as they do from different
points, each one announcing fragmentarily only indi
vidual momenta of the saving purpose of God, and all
keeping more or less within the limits of Old Testa
ment apprehension, yet find in Christ their unified
fulfilment, transcending all previous conception, there
emerge to view in more tangible historic reality the
governing-policy (das Walten) of the spirit of revela
tion in the prophets, and the educative work of
Jehovah preparatory to Christ, and- we gain also,
provided we still retain some sense of " the joy in the
green germ-thoughts and the original wealth of ideas
of Holy Scripture in its festive spring - attire," 1 a
deeper insight into the adorable glory of this educative
work. For it is not the man who sees a landscape
only when everything is green, but rather he who has
been able to watch the sprouting, budding, and gradual
blooming, whom the beauty of spring impresses most
deeply with the sense of the glory of God as revealed
in nature ; even so, he does not gain the deepest
insight , into Divine revelation, who thinks to find
1 Words of LOcke in his preface to the 2nd ed. of be Wette's
Komment. zur Offenb. Joh. p. 13. See Appendix A, Note VIII.

New Testament Fulfilment. 323
saving truth everywhere in Holy Scripture in its
fully - developed New Testament form, but rather he
who has an open . eye also for its gradual coming to
the light in the spirit of the Theocratic heroes of the
Old Covenant.

APPENDICES.

A.— NOTES.
I. P. 21. Sentence indicated by note 1. It is only
fair to give the German of this difficult sentence : " Die
ausseren Sinne ruhten dabei ganz; das verstandige
Bewusstsein (der nous) war vom pnedma iiberwaltigt,
und zwar so, dass es allerdings nicht pausierte, vielmehr
erhoht und armiert wurde und der intellektuellen Ans-
chauung, soweit es mbglich ist, in ihrem Fluge zu
folgen suchte, aber doch hinter ihr in bescheidener
Entfernung zuriickbleiben musste, sich zur Hohe der
unmittelbaren Erkenntnisse nicht zu erheben vermochte,
iiberhaupt nur in einem untergeordneten, dienenden Ver-
haltnisse zu dem Vermogen der inneren Wahrnehmung
stand" (Germ. p. 16). The motive and difficulty of the
view of inspiration here indicated are fully set forth by
Eiehm (see esp. p. 23, note). Hengstenberg would
safeguard the reality of inspired certainty by inventing
for it a special faculty — the " intellektuelle Anschau-
ung " or " innere Wahrnehmung." The above sentence
describes his attempt to explain the relation of this
faculty to the ordinary thinking powers. Manifestly,
however, Hengstenberg only gets rid of one difficulty to
become involved in another. He is deceived by his
own metaphor of the dienendes Verhdltniss. Is it at all
easier to conceive of God as acting upon the human
spirit through the medium of a process within the mind,
in which the mind itself (as rational self-consciousness)

326 Appendices.
does not participate, than to conceive of Him as acting
upon it directly, and in such a way that the mind, while
acknowledging its debt to revelation and correlative
inspiration, yet claims the new truth, once it has grasped
it, as wholly its own ? The latter is Eiehm's view. He
does not philosophise upon it, nor claim for it freedom
from all difficulty. What difficulty there is in it is
God's affair, not ours. Faith leaves the difficulty with
Him, assured that He is able to deal with it without
any breach of the laws He has Himself imposed upon
the mind of man. See in re Eiehni, p. 45, note 2.
II. P. 32, note 1. " Wahrend er in den prophetischen
Schriften die 'Zuthaten' und ' Ausschmiickungen ' als
zwar nicht ' direkt gottlichen,' aber doch als ' gottmen-
schlichen Inhalt' anerkennt (ii. p. 357), will er die
historischen Biicher des Alten Testamentes im einzelnen
und so auch in ihren Aussagen fiber die Propheten
darauf angesehen und nach der Norm des prophetischen
Selbstzeugnisses beurteilt wissen, 'ob sich dem gott
lichen Korn menschliche Spreu in der Tradition beige-
mischt hat'" (ii. p. 318). It is uncertain whether the
"prophetic self-testimony" is not to be taken in the
more restricted sense of the testimony of the prophets
regarding themselves. The note is to be interpreted in
the light of the sentence in p.. 31, "Still Konig," etc.
Tests applied to is literally — and perhaps ought to have
been rendered — norm of.
III. P. 33. But to require, etc. The reference is,
of course, to the idea of accommodation. Eiehm objects
to a use of a sober and legitimate hypothesis, which
reduces it to what he calls an " abenteuerliche Kari-
katur." The next sentence, perhaps, hardly expresses
the original. It should be read with an emphasis on
thewordAim ("necessarily led him"). Konig's "candour"
is commendable, in so far as it led him to acknowledge
the historical hmitations of prophecy. But this critical
candour, when exhibited by one who believes that God

A. — Notes. 327
accommodates Himself primarily to the sense-faculties,
leads to very extraordinary results (cp. esp. p. 30, note).
IV. P. 66, note 1. Book of the Four Covenants (Vier-
bundesbuch), so called from the four covenants (Adam,
Noah, Abraham, Moses), includes Ex. 25-40 (except
32-34), nearly the whole of Leviticus, Num. 1-10,
15-19, 25-36, with a certain thin thread of narrative
pervading the whole Pentateuch and the Book of Joshua.
Ewald calls it the Book of Origins. Its first name
was the Elohistic Document (from the constant use of
'Elohim as the Divine name), and up till recently it
was generally known by the name Grundschrift (" main
stock "), an appellation founded upon the belief that it
was the earliest document of the Hebrew Bible, and
therefore in some sense the substratum of the whole.
Since the publication of Wellhausen's Prolegomena, 1878
(Eng. transl., A. & C. Black), the so-called "Grafian
Hypothesis," according to which the Grundschrift is
not the earliest, but the latest of the documents of
the Hexateuch (i.e. the Pentateuch and Joshua) has
become popular among scholars. The 'Grundschrift
appears now as the Priestly Code, and is regarded as
directly authoritative only as testifying to the require
ments of the religious standpoint prevalent in the time
of Ezra. It will be observed that, while Eiehm does
not commit himself to the new view (the sentence to
which we here refer rather assumes the correctness of
the old view), he is careful to base no argument upon
what would be inconsistent with either the one or the
other (see esp. p. 65, note 2). On the whole subject,
cp. Wellh. Prol., Eng. transl. pp. 6 ff, 17-293, 376 ff,
392 ff.; and, for a clear and simple statement, The Old
Testament in the Jewish Church, W. E. Smith : A. & C.
Black, Edinburgh 1881, pp. 208 ff.
V. P. 80. But the attainment of which, etc. The
rendering is, perhaps, rather free. The German is :
'' Welches (Ziel) zu erreichen aber sein gottlicher Beruf

328 Appendices.
und seine Bestimung ¦ sei, und zu dem es auch am
Ende kraft des gottlichen Erwahlungsratschlusses
gewiss gelangen werde" — To attain which goal was,
however, his Divine calling and his destination, and
which goal he would certainly in the end reach, in virtue
of the Divine elective decree.
VI. P. 149. And if his hope, etc. Sentence marked
by note 3; Germ. pp. 110-111: "Wie sollte er also,
wenn ihm seine Hoffnung das letztere als ein nahes
vergegenwartigt, bei der Schilderung desselben nicht
auch in seine Gegenwart hineingreifen." There seems
to be a half- conscious resonance between the words
vergegenwartigt and Gegenwart which I have tried to
reproduce. The sentence is awkwardly constructed,
and it may fairly be doubted whether the sein in seine
Gegenwart relates to the Endziel or to the prophet him
self — probably to the latter, though, in that case, the
auch seems peculiar. The translation seems to favour
the reference to the former, and I have allowed the
sentence to remain as I wrote it first, because it seems
to bring out the resonance above noted, without in
the least degree altering the author's meaning, more
effectively than a sentence altered to suit the strictly
correct reference of the possessive pronoun could have
done. VII. P. 201, note 2. The German of the italicised
words is: "Dass Jehova selbst kommen werde, um
seinen Einzug im Tempel zu halten und diesen fiir
ewig zur Statte seiner Wohnung zu machen." The
preposition im (before Tempel) seems to refer both to
the verb halten and the noun Einzug, though the latter
reference involves, of course, a slight grammatical
inaccuracy. VIII. P. 322, note. The sentence from which these
words are taken may here be quoted in full, as an
interesting statement of the view of the function of

A. — Notes. 329
Scripture which Eiehm himself favours (I italicise the
words which Eiehm quotes) : " Wenn man jetzt wieder
darauf ausgeht, in der Exegese alle theologischen In-
strumente und Stimmen gleichsam zu einem theolo
gischen Universalconcert zu vereinigen, als ware die
Exegese die ganze Theologie, da sie doch nur ihre Wur-
zel oder ihr Grundbau ist, oder wenn man wieder Lust
zeigt und darnach shebt an die Stelle der freien wissen-
schaftlichen Auslegung in ihrer Gebundenheit durch das
gemeinsame Princip der evangelischen Kirche die con-
fessionell beschrankte kirchliche, und an die Stelle der
wissenschaftlichen hermeneutischen Norm die Norm
der symbolisch gewordenen dogmatischen Formel zu
setzen, wenn man endlich sich gar nicht mehr verstehen
will auf die Freude an den grunen Keimgedanken und
an der urspriinglichen Ideenfulle der heiligen Schrift
in ihrem Fruhlingsschmucke, sondern nur darauf aus
ist, die Schrift zu einer Scheuer voll eingesammelter
und ausgedroschener Aehren dogmatischer Begriffe von
sonst und jetzt herabzusetzen, — so wiirde de Wette mit
alien geistig lebendigen und frischen Theologen gegen
dergleichen scholastische Barbareien welche, wie die
Gesehichte lehrt, nur zu Entkraftigungen, Abschwach-
ungen und Verwahrlosungen des urspriinglichen Gottes-
u. Herrnwortes in der Schrift fuhren, den entschiedensten
Protest eingelegt haben, wie er es auch schon gethan hat
in Beziehung auf die Anfange und Vorboten solcher Verir-

330

Appendices.

B.— INDEX TO SCEIPTUEE PASSAGES CITED
BY EIEHM.
(Nos. to the right show the pages where references occur ;
c. and cs.=chapter, chapters ; ps. =psalm.)

Genesis.

2. 10 ff,
3. 20,
9. 26,
10. 10,
12. 2f.,
13. 14 ff,
17. 6,
17. 7f.,
18. 18, 18.
18. 25,
21. 17,
22. 15,
22. 16 ff,
22. 18,
26. 3 ff,
26. 4,
28. 3 f.,
28. 14,
28. 15,
35. 11 and
48. 20,

18 f.

11 f.,

. 69

. 147

68,

97, 193

. 68

. 106
68, 83
97,
193, 68
. 91
. 31
. 31
. 68
97, 193
. 68
. 97
. 68
. 97
. 112
106, 68
. 97
EXODDS.
6. 2-8,
6. 6 f., 6. 7,
11. 5,
12. 29,
14. 19,
15. 16,
15. 18,
19. 4 ff,
19. 5,
19. 6,
19. 19,
20. 2,
20. 22,
23. 20,
23. 21,
24. 3ff,
24. 7f.,
24.10f.,
, 69
70, 83
200200202 6985
67, 72, 91
71, 72, 117, 197 31 7031
202282 69
67
60
29. 45,
70, 83'
29. 46,
70
31. 13,
72
32. 11 ff., .
76
33. 16,
71
33. 19,
85
34. 6, 34. 7,
85
40. 15, 117, 259
Leviticus.
10. 3, . . .
74
10. 6, . .
119
11. 44, 11. 45, .
73, 83
cs. 17-26, .
66
19. 2,
73
19. 36,
70
20. 8, . . .
72
20. 26,
72, 73
21. 8, .
72, 73
21. 15. 23,
72
22. 9,
72
22. 16,
72
22. 32,
72
22. 33,
83
25. 38,
83
26. 11 f., .
70
26. 12,
83
26. 40 ff, .
75
26. 44 ff, .
75
26. 45,
83
Nujhbers.
5. 21,
97
8. 17,
72
11. 16 ff., .
87
11. 25 ff, .
42
11. 29,
87
12. 2, . . .
41
12. 6. 8, .
41
14. 13 ff, .
76
14. 18,
85
15. 37 ff, .
8\
B. — Index to Scripture Passages.

331

PAGE
15. 40, . . . .73

PAGE
10. 6f.  116

15. 41,

. 83

10. 6. 10, .

. 42
18. 19,
. 259
10. 24,
. 109
20. 16, *
. 202
c. 12,
. 107
23. 5. 16,
42
12. 3. 5, .
. 282
23. 19,
. 75
12. 22,
. 75
23. 21,
. 106
12. 35,
. 110
24. 7. 17,
. 106
13. 14,
. 108
25. 13,
. 117, 259
c. 15,
. 113
Deuteronomy.
15. 29,
16. 8. 10, .
. 75
. 109
i. 7ff, . . . 71
16. 13,
. 116
4. 12. 36,
31
19. 20 ff, .
25, 42
4. 35. 39,
91
20. 2. 12. 13,
. 40
9. 26 ff.,
76
22. 8. 17, .
. 40
10. 17,
9
1, 183
22. 18,
. 118
10. 17 f.,
89
24. 7. 11, .
. 112
17. 12,
.
200
25. 28,
. 113
17. 15,
109
25. 39,
. 41
17. 18,
116
26. 9 f., .
. 112
18. 15, v .
299
28. 3. 9, .
114
18. 18,
42
18. 20 ff., .
18
2 Samuel
18. 22,
144
1. 14, . .
. 112
29. 19,
97
3. 18,
113
30. 1 ft, .
¦75
5. 24,
112
30. 6,
87
c. 6, .
114
30. 14J
61
6. 14,
118
32. 6,
113
6. 16 ff, .
118
32. 39,
91
6. 21,
109
33. 5,
89
c. 7, . .
102
33. 29,
182
7. Iff.,.
18
7. 8 ff, .
191
Joshua.
7. 12-16. 29,
117
3. 11. 13, . . . .91
7. 14 and 7. 15,
112
24. 19 ff.  73
7. 16,
108
Judges.
7. 23 f., .
7. 27,
6940
c. 5  104
14. 17. 20,
115
8. 23, ... 89, 107
19. 27,
115
20. 28, ... . 200
21. Iff,.
119
Kuth.
23. 1-7, .
23. 2,
10
2, 108 41
4. 4,  40
23. 3,
43
1 Samuel.
24. Iff, .
119
3. 1 ff.  31
1 Kings.
4. 1 3. 18, . . . . 200
1. 31, . . . . 117
c. 8, 10. 17-11. 15, . . 107
1. 35. 40, .
180
c. 9-10. 16, 107
2. 19,
111
9. 15, . . . . 40 ,
2. 26 f., .
118
9. 16,
.
.
113
3. 4 ft, .
115
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B. — Index to Scripture Passages.

333

PAGE

PAGE
ps. 45, ... . 102
17. 5,
. 94
45. 3,
110
20. 8. 26, .
. 114
45. 4. 6 f.,
115
24. 21,
. 110, 282
45. 4 f., .
114
45. 6,
11
1,117
Isaiah.
47. 7,
91
1. 18,
. 85
51. 11 f., .
82
c. 2, .
. 153
69. 27 ffi, .
.75
2. 1 and 2. 1 ff,
42, 185
71. 2,
78
2. 2-4,
. 207
ps. 72, .
102
2. 3 f.,
. 292
72. 1-7. 12-15,
114
2. 5,
. 73
72. 8-11, .
116
2. 6-8,
. 72
72. 17, .
97
4. 3, . .
. 273
72. 19,
96
4. 5 f.,
. 282
78. 70,
109
5. 9, . .
. 39
79. 6,
93
5. 25 ff,
. 153
85. 10,
89
c. 6, .
. 28
86. 15,
85
6. 3, . .
. 96
ps. 89,
102
6. 13,
. 159
89. 14,
77,8
9, 183
c. 7, .
. 187
89. 20,
109
7. 7. 16, .
. 143
89. 25,
116
7. 14, 7. 14 ff, .
. 280, 149
89. 26 ff., .
112
7. 16,
. 157
89. 27,
116
7. 17 ff, .
. 159
89. 28,
. 114
7. 18 ff, .
. 143
89. 28 f. 36 f.,
117
7. 22,
. 159
96. 6,
110
8. Iff.,.
. 134
96. 10,
89
8. 4, . .
. 143
96. 13,
77
8. 5 ff, .
. 143
97. 2,
89
8. 6,
. 110
ps. 101, .
115
8. 9,
. 208
102. 8,
97
8. 11 f., .
. 28
103. 8,
85
9. 1, 9. Iff, .
. 312, 161
103. 17, .
77
9. 4. 6, .
. .. 183
104. 1,
110
9. 6, 9. 6 f.,
. 280, 182
104. 3,
195
10. 5, 15, .
. 95
ps. 110, .
102
10. 12,
. 161
110. 1,
11
0, 200
10. 13 f., .
. 209
110. 5,
112
10. 21,
. 183
111. 3,
110
10. 22 ff., .
. 159
111. 4,
85
10. 26,
69, 286
116. 5,
77
10. 32 ffi, .
. 160
119. 46, .
41
10. 33 f., .
. 143
119. 64, .
96
c. 11,
, 186
129. 4,
78
11. Iff, .
. 184
143. 10, .
82
11. 1. 16, .
. 69
145. 17, .
77
11. 6ff, 11. 30. 26
, . 99, 276
11. 10,
280, 284, 292
Peoterbs
11. lift, 11. 11. 1
6, . 161, 286
14. 31,
. 94
11. 14,
. 244
16. 12-15, .
114
c. 12,
69, 286
334

Appendices.

PAGE

PAGE
14. 14, , 196
37. 11 ffi, . 209
14. 24 ff,
. 143, 160
37. 22 ffi, .
. 160
17. 12 ffi,
. 160
37. 33 ffi, .
. 143
18. 3-7,
. 208
39. 5 ffi, .
. 162
18. 4 ffi,
.,
. 160
cs, 40-66,
. 22, 77, 78, 138,
19. 1,
. 195
168, 191, 2
10, 212, 213, 288
19. 18-25,
. 207
40. 5, 40. 9f.,
. 170, 201
19. 19 ff.,
. 261
41. 2,
. 96
19. 23 ffi,
. 244
41.10ff.,
78
21. 10,
. 29
42. 1,
. 170
22. 1 ffi,
. 159
42. 2f.,
. 312
22. 14 and
22. 1
8,
39, 147
43. 1. 15,
. 113
22. 21 ffi,
. 183
43. 10,
. 191
cs. 24-27,
. 189
43. 14,
. 96
24. 18 ffi,
. 100
43. 16 ffi,
4
24. 23,
91, 283
43. 25,
. 278
25. 7,
. 292
44. 3,
'. 17
0, 273
25. 8,
100, 276
44. 8,
. 191
26. 19,
100, 276
44. 28,
. 96
27. 9,
. 264
45. 1,
96
28. 7, 28. 1
4ff,
60, 159
45. 1. 13,
96
28. 22,
. 29
45. 3,
170
28. 29,
. 183
45. 6,
170
29. 5 ff.,
. 160
45. 7-10. 1
3,
273
29. 7f.,
. 143
45. 11,
113
29. 17,
. 161
45. 21,
181
29. 18. 24,
. 273
45. 22 ffi,
169
30. 1 f., 30
8ff.
42, 134
45. 23,
91
30. 10,
. 60
46. 11,
96
30. 12 ffi,
. 159
48. 8,
40
30. 19 ffi,
161, 273
48. 9 ffi, .
76
30. 26,
. 100
48. 9. 16,
278
30. 27 ffi, .
143, 160
48. 16,
42
31. 5. gf.;
143, 160
48. 22,
290
31. 7 ffi,
. 161
49. 2,
205
31. 8,
. 18
49. 6,
29
9, 314
c. 32,
. 187'
49, 26,
170
32. 3f. 15,.
. 273
50. 4 f., .
40
32. 9 ffi, .
. 159
50. 5 ff, .
312
32. 14, .
162, 258
50. 11,
290
c. 33,
. 160
51. 6,
'.
100
33. 13,
. 208
51. 7,
31, 82
33. 17 ff., .
. 161
52. 5 f., .
76
33. 24,
9
9, 273, 276
52. 7,
91
34. 4,
. 100
52. 8,
201
34. 16,
. 134
52. 10,
170
35. 8,
93, 273
c. 53,
21
5, 29
1, 30
3, 312
36. 10,
. 39
53. 12,
303
36. 17,
. 147
54. 9,
170
36. 18.ff, .
. 209
54. 11 f., .
275
37. 4. 32, .
. 211
54. 13,
3, 8
7, 17
0, 23*
2,274
B. — Index to Scripture Passages.

335

55. 3-5, .

PAGE
. 191

PAGE
3. 6-6. 30, ... 164

55. 7,

. 85

3. 16 f., .

. 130, 233, 274

55. 10 f., .

. 17

3. 17,

3. 209

56. 3 ffi, .

. 275

3. 21 ff.,

. 166, 273

56. 7,

. 274

4.2,

97, 209
57. 20 f., .
. 290
7. 23,
. 83
58. 7,
. 94
10. 24 f.,
. 75
59. 19,
. 170
10. 25,
. 93
59. 20 f., 59. 21,i
. 264, 42
11. 4,
83
60. 1 f. 19 f., .
. 201
12. 15 ffi,
. 209
60. 13,
. 275
12. 16,
. 292
60. 17, .
. 275
12. 17,
. 293
60. 18. 21,
. 273
13. 13,
. 200
60. 19 f., .
. 275
15. 4,
164, 190
60. 21,
. 170
15. 16,
. 42
61. 1,
. 42
16. 14 f.,
4, 286
61. If.,.
. 302
16. 19 f.,
. 209
61. 6, . 3, 16
9, 197, 232,
17. 19 ffi,
. 129
273, 274
17. 25, 17.
26,
189, 129
63. 9,
. 202
18. 18 ff,
. 129
64. 4ffi, .
. 214
20. 7-9,
. 17
65. 8,
. 215
20. 9,
. 41
65. 9,
. 69
20. 10 ff,
. 17
65. 11 f., .
. 290
21. 22. 26,
. 16
65. 15,
. 97
22. 4,
189, 200
65. 16,
. 97
23. 5 f.,
. 188
65. 17, . . 1C
0, 169, 276
23. 6,
182, 285
65. 20,
-. 99
23. 6ff,
. 69
65. 22,
. 276
23. 7 f., .
4, 286
65. 23,
. 98
23. 16. 18,
. 16
65. 24,
. 273
23.26 f.,
. 164
65. 25,
99, 276
23. 28 f., .
. 17
66. 18,
. 170
23. 31,
. 15
66. 18 ff., .
140, 294
23, 35-37, .
. 52
66. 21, . 169, 19J
, 232, 273,
24. 7,
8
3, 166, 273
274
25. 3,
. 23
66. 22, . . 10
0, 169, 276
25. 9,
. 96
66. 23,
100, 229
25. 11 f., .
. 165
66. 24,
. 290
26. 18 f.,
27. 6,
. 146
. 96
Jeremiah.
c. 28,
. 18
1.4. 7, . . .
. 28
28. 8f., .
. 144
1.7, . . .
. 38
28. 16,
. 144
1. 9, . . .
. 42
28. 31,
. 16
1.10,
. 17
29. 10,
. 165
1.17ffi, .
. 17
29. 12 f., .
. 166
159. 20 f., 59. 21. 59. 20 f. is at 264, and 59. 21 at 42. So in
other instances, where two citations are put in the same line to rectify
a late discovered error, and are separated hy a comma,
336

Appe

ndices.

PAGE

PAGE

29. 22,

. 97

9. 1. 5, .

. 39

cs. 30-33,

.165

11. 5,

. ¦ . 42

30. 9,

. 270

11. 19 f., .

87, 168, 273

30. 9. 21, .

. 188

11. 20,

. 83

30. 10,

. 292

11. 25,

. 42

30. 21,

. 121, 189, 284

13. 2. 3. 6. 7. 1J

. 16

30. 22,

. 83

13. 3,

34, 59

c. 31,

. 69

13. 22,

. 144

31. 1,

. 83

14. 11,

. 83

31. 14,

. 129, 190

16. 33,

. 278

31. 29 ff, .

. 130, 273

16. 60 ff., .

. 75

31. 31 ff., .

. 273, 274

16. 61 ff, .

.168

31. 33 and 3

1. 33 ff., . 3, 87, 166

16. 63,

. 168, 278, 289

31. 34,

. 165, 232, 274

17. 22 ffi, .

. 189

32. 8,

. 38

20. 12,

. 72

32. 16 ffi, .

. 52

20. 12 ff, .

. 129

32. 18,

. 183

20. 33 ff., .

. 289

32. 38,

. 83

20. 38,

. 290

32. 39, .

. 87

20. 41,

. 76

32. 39 f., .

. 166, 273

20. 43 f., .

75, 168

32. 40,

. 274

21. 27, .

. 188

33. 2 f., .

. ' 52

22. 8,

. 129

33. 3,

. 9, 52

22. 26,

. 129

33. 8,

. 165, 273

28. 24 ffi, .

293

33. 8 ffi, .

. 259

32. 11 ff, .

. 76

33. 11,

. 129

34. 23,

. 270

33. 15,

. 188

34. 23 f., .

. 188

33. 16,

. 285

34. 24,

83

33. 17. 21 f.,

. 189

36. 25,

. 278, 285

33. 18 ffi, .

. 196

36. 25 ff, .

102, 168, 273

33. 26,

. 189

36. 26 f., 36. 28,

87, 83

37. 17, .

. 190

36. 31 f., .

75, 168, 278, 289

38. 14 ff, .

.190

36. 35,

. 99

38. 21,

.42

37. 23,

. 168, 273

42. 4,

. 52

37. 23. 27, .

. 83

43. 10,

. 96

37. 24, .

. 188, 270

46. 26,

. 209

37. 27,

. 70

46. 28,

. 75

37. 28,

. 72

48. 47,.

. 209

cs. 38 and 39,

140, 167, 294

49. 6. 39, .

. 209

38. 8. 11 ff,

. 167, 294

49. 14,

. 29

38. 16. 23,

. 76

50. 20,

. 165, 273

39. 6,

. 167

,
39. 29,
87, 273
SZEKIEL.
cs. 40-48, .
. 130
cs. 1 and 40
, . . . 28
40. 4,
39, 41
1. 26,
. 195
40. 39,
. 232
2. 8, . .
. 42
42. 13,
. 232
3. 2f.,
. 42
43. 2 ffi, .
. 201
3. 10,
39, 41
44. 5,
39, 41
3. 17,
. 29
44. 9,
. 131
4. 14,
. 129
44. 19. 23,
. 130, 232
B. — Index to Scripture Passages,

337

PAGE

FADE
44. 29,
232
8, 14,
k ( t t,
155, 156
45. 8,
189
10, 3,
V 1 j
. 109
45. 18 ff, .
130
10. 11,
* k »
. 155
46. 16 ff, .
189
12. 2,
l . i
. 155
46. 20,
232
13. 10f.,
, „ t
. 109
47. Iff,.
100
275
14. 1. 8,
14. 2,
>
. 289
232, 274
Daniel.
14. 3,
. . ,
. 198
2. 34 ffi, .
195
14. 4 ffi,
, , ,
. 159
2. 34. 44, .
2. 44, 2. 44 ffi, .
171
276195
Joel.
7. 4. 6. 11. 12, .
194
1. 15,
.
. 154
7. 8f„
171
2. 1 f. 11
. i
. 154
7. 11 ffi, .
171
2. 13,
.
. 85
7. 11 ff. 21 ffi, .
171
2. 18-27,
. . >
. 157
7. 13 f., . . 193
194
281
2. 28, 2.
28 f., 2. 28 ffi,
154, 3,
7. 14, ...
276
87
179, 273
7. 18. 22. 27, .
19*4
276
3. 1. 7,
.
. 157
7. 21, ...
194
3. 1-18,
.
. 157
7. 22, .
195
3. 8, .
.
. 206
7. 24, ...
195
3. 9 ff,
,
. 140
7. 25 ff, .
171
3. 18,
.
157, 158
8. 11, ...
195
3. 19,
.
. 157
8. 17, ...
171
4. 18,
.
99, 275
c. 9, .
9. 22, ...
¦
254 9
Amos.
10. 5ff, .
195
282
1. 1, .
.
42
11. 35. 45,
171
1. 3 ff.,
,
. 142
12. Iff, .
171
1.6, .
.
. 157
12. 2,
100
2. 3, .
. .
. 73
12. 2f., .
•
276
2. 5, .
, 2. 7 ff.,
. .
156, 156
. 73
Hosea.
3, 7, .
.
. 87
cs. 1-3,
1. 2, .
1. 10, ...
1. 11, ...
2. 18, 2. 18 f., 2. 18 ffi,
2. 18. 21 f.,
99,
156 41
273
180
289, 273
276
3. 8, .
6.1, .
c. 9, .
9. 10,
9. 11 f.,
9. 12,
9. 13,
.
. 17
. 155
. 157
. 155
. 179
158, 244
. 158
2. 19, ...
,
77
Obadiah.
2. 20ffi, .
,
159
21, .
,
. 282
3. 5, . . 109, 110,
180,
270,
282
,289
Jonah.
cs. 4-14, .
.
156
4.2, .
. . •
. 85
5. 10. 12ff.,
(
155
5. 15-8. 3, .
,
289
Micah.
6. 4, .
155
' 1. 16,
.
. 159
6. 7, .
,
67
2. 12,
.
. 159
8. 1, .
,
67
3. 5, .
.
. 144
8. 4, .
109
3.7, .
.
. 52
338

Appendices.

PAGE

PAOE

3.8, .

. 42
cs. 3, 6, .
121, 284
3. 12,
'. 146
148, 159
3. 8ff,
193, 198
c. 4, .
9
3. 9, .
. 201
4. 1-4,
. 207
c. 4, 4. 1. 4. 5, .
200, 41
4. 6f.,
. 159
4. 7. 10, .
. 201
4.7, .
. 91
5. 5. 10,
. 41
4.8, .
. 147
6. 4 
. 41
4. 9f.,
. 159
6. 9ff,
. 193
4. 10,
145, 147
6. 11 ffi, .
. 198
4. 11-13, 4. 11 ff, 140
163, 293
6. 13, .
199, 201
5.1,.
159, 280
6. 15, . . ' .
. 201
5. 2, 5.
2 ff.',
311, 185
6. 16,
. 171
5. 3, .
147, 159
7. 12, ...
. 43
5. 4f.,
140, 146
8. 3, .
. 202
5. 5 f.,
. 293
8. 4, .
. 99
5. 5 f. 15, .
. 163
8. 7f.,
. 253
5. 6, .
. 147
8. 8 
. 83
7. 7 ffi,
. 289
8. 13,
97, 199
7. 8 ffi,
. 163
c. 9, .
. 182
7. 13,
. 159
cs. 9-11, .
. 181
7. 15,
69, 286
cs. 9-12, .
. 160
7. 18, 7
18ffi, . 85
159, 273,
9. 9, 9. 9f., 202, 279,
311, 181, 206
Nahum.
9. 10, 9. 14, . 284
292, 282
1.3, .
. 85
cs. 10, 11, .
10. 11,
. 182
. 160
Habakkuk.
cs. 12-14, .
. 189
c. 1, .
52
12. 1 ffi,
140, 293
1. 13,
. 78
12.8, . . .
. 280
2. 1, 2.
If., 2. Iff, .
41, 42, 9
12. 10,
. 273
2. 2, 2.
2f.,
52, 134
12. 10ff, .
278, 290
2. 14,
. 209
13. 1, 13. Iff., 102, 278
285, 273
3 2 .
29
13. 9, . . .
83
3. 9, .
. 292
14. 3ff. 12 ff, 140,
14. 8, . . .
282, 293
. 275
Zephaniah.
14. 9. 16, . .
. 209
2. 11,
3. 9, .
. 100,
209, 261
209, 292
14. 16 ff., .
14. 20 f., .
Malachi.
. 229
. 275
Haggai.
2. 17, ...
. 202
2.6, .
. 171
3. 1, 3. 1. 5, 269, 282,
291, 121
2. 7 ffi,
. 201
3. 1-9. 16 f.,
. 202
2. 21 ff,
171, 193
3. 3f.,
3. 6, . .
. 201
. 75
Zechariah.
4. 5,4. 5 f., . 299,
269, 291
1. 9. 13.
2. 2. 7,
14,
. 41
. 41
Matthew.
2. 10. 11. 13,
. 202
3. 17, ...
. 31
2. 10 ff.
. 253
4. 13 ffi, .
. 312
2. 11,
. 83
11. 10-14, .
. 304
B. — Index to Scripture Passages.

339

PAGE

Romans.

11. 14,
. 270
PAGE
11. 25,
. 47
1. 2,
. 2, 5
11. 27,
. 304
1. 16,
. 260
12. 17 ff., .
. 303
3. If.,
. 260
16. 16 f., 16
17,
301, 47
3. 29 f.,
. 260
17. 5,
. 31
5. 15 f.,
. 265
17. 10 ff, .
270, 304
6. 23,
. 265
19. 28,
. 263
9. 6 ffi,
260
20. 20 ff.,
. Ill
9. 24 ff.,
. 260
23. 29,
. 263
9. 25 f.,
. 260
cs. 24, 25,
. 22
10. 12,
. 260
24. 34,
. 263
11. HO
. 256
24. 36,
. 148
11. 15,
263, 265
26. 54,
2, 303
11. 25 ff
. 263
26. 63 f., .
. 301
11. 29,
239, 264
27. 43. 46,
Mark.
. 312
11. 31 f.,
15. 8f.,
. 266
. 259
9. 12,
. 303
1 Corinthians
13. 32,
. 148
12. 13,
c. 14,
. 260
25, 26
Luke.
14. 18,
. 26
1. 76,
. 300
15. 51 f.
. 148
2. 31 f., .
. 300
4. 21,
. 302
2 Corinthians
22. 37,
2,303
1. 20,
2,
297, 300
24. 4ff,
2
6. 2. 16-
18,
. 260
24. 25 ffi,
. 303
6. 16,
12. 1 ff.,
. 260 27
John.
12. 8f.,
. 51
2. 22,
. 305
\
4. 22,
255
Galatians.
\
4. 23 f.,
. 236
3. 7. 29,
260
4. 48,
. 23
3. 16,
305
5. 39,
1
3. 28 f.,
260
10. 35,
2
4. 21 ff,
305
12. 28,
. 31
4. 22,
. 260
19. 24,
. 305
4. 26,
237
19. 37,
. 304
4. 27,
238
20. 9,
. 305
4. 28,
6. 15,
. 260
. 260
Acts.
6. 16,
. 260
1. 7, .
2. 39,
3. 25 f.,
, 148
. 260
Ephesians.
. 260
2. 11-22
. 260
8. 32 ff.,
. 303
3. 5,.
. 261
9. 40,
52
3. 13,
. 315
10. 9ff.
. 27
13. 46, 13.
46 f.,
. 260. 314
Philippians.
16. 9,
. ' 30
3. 20,
,.
_ 237
340

Appendices.

1. 24,
3. 11,

Colossians.

PAGE 315260

1

Thessalonians.

4. 16 f„

Titus.

148

2. 14,

Hebrews.

260

c. 7, .
11. 10. 16
12. 22,
13. 14,

1 Peter.

305
237237237

2. 9f.,
2. 22 ff,

2 Peter.

260303

1. 19,
1. 21,

317 122

1 John.

2.27,

47

Revelation.

1. 7, . . . .

. 304

2. 4ff.,

262, 263

3. 12,

. 237

3. 21,

. 200

10. 7,

. 263

c. 20,

. 168

21. 2ff. 10 ffi,* .

. 237

REFERENCES TO APOC
RYPHA. PAGE
1 Macc. 10. 62 f., . . Ill
14. 41, . . 299
Sir. 48. 10 f., . . .299

REFERENCES TO RABBINI
CAL WRITINGS.
Book of Enoch.!
46. 1, 48. 2ff. . . . 194
48. 3. 6  298
62. 5. 7  194
69. 27-29, . . . ' . 194
Fourth Book of Ezha or
Esdras.
12. 32 ff.  194
13. 1 ffi, . . . ., 194
Third Sibylline Book.
vv. 286 f., . . 195
Targum of Jonathan on
Isa. 4. 3, 22. 14, 26. 15-19, 65. 6.
15, at p. 298, and on Isa. 53.
12, at p. 299.
Hos. 14. 9, at p. 298.
Mic. 4. 8, at p. 298.

REFERENCES TO CLASSICAL
WRITINGS.
(1) Cicero, De Divinatione, i. 50
(113), 51 (117), 57 (129), 30
(63), p. 27.
(2) Herodotus, Historidn Ldgoi,
i. 15, 103-106 ; iv. 11, 12,
p. 164.

* The passage Mic. 4. 10 is discussed at length in note, pp. 145-8,
and Dan. 7. 13 ff. in note, pp. 193-6. Zech. 6. 13, at pp. 199, and
Mai. 2. 1 ff. at p. 202.
t English edition of this work by Scliodde, Andover, Canada 1882.

C. — Modern Works.

341

C.— MODERN WORKS EEFEEEED TO BY
EIEHM.

. AUTHOtt. TITLE OP WOKK OR WOEKS, ETC.
Auberlen, . . Der Prophet Daniel und die Offenbarung Johannis.
(Clark's Transl. 1856.) See also below: Mag.
and Encykl. Art.
Baumgarten, . See below : M. and E. A.
Baur (Gustav), Geschichte der alttestamentlicJiien Weissagung. Gies-
sen, Ricker, 1861, — on Gen. 12. 3, etc., p. 97.
Bertheau, . . See below : M. and E. A.
Beyschlag, . Die Christologie des Neuen Testamentes.
Bleek, . . . Synoptische Erkldrung der drei ersten Evangelien,
edited by Holtzmann. Leipzig 1862.
Bredenkamp, . Gesetz und Propheten, 1881.
Bunsen, . . . Bibelwerk, p. 195 (note).
Caspar i, . Ueber Micha den Morasthiten. Christiania 1851.
Credner, . On Joel 3. 19, p. 157.
Delitzsch, . . Die biblisch-prophetische Theologie, ihre Fortbil-
dung durch Chr. A. Crusius und ihre neueste
EntvAckelung zeit der Christologie Hengsten-
bergs. Leipzig 1845. Also various references
to Commentaries : Genesis, Isaiah, etc., and to
his work, Die Alttestamentliche Weissagung.
De Wette, . . Kommentar zur Offenbarung Johannis. Second
ed. edited by Liicke. Passage cited from this
work at p. 322 will be found also in the later
or third ed.
Diestel,. . . See below : M. and E. A.
Drechsler, . Kommentar zu Jesaias. Referred to incidentally,
note, p. 138.
Duhm, . . . Die Theologie der Propheten als Grundlagefur die
innere Entwickelungsgeschichte der israelitischen
Religion. Bonn 1875. Naturalistic stand
point of this work criticised, p. 19.
Eisenlohr, . . Das Volk Israel water der Herrschaft der Kbnige.
Two vols.
Ewald, . . . Gesch. des Volkes Israel (Eng. Transl., Longmans*
Green, & Co. ), Die Lehre der Bibel von Gott.
Franks, . . Das Alte Testament bei Johannes. 1885.
Guthe, . . . De foederis notione Jeremiana. Leipzig 1877.
Hengstenberg, Christologie des Alten Testaments und Commentar
iiber die Messianischen Weissagungen. 3 vols.
Second ed., Berlin 1854-57. Its view of
mode of revelation to prophets discussed at
length, pp. 20 ff. Modific. of views of first by
second ed. noted p. 24 (note).
Hess, J. J.,. . Briefe iiber die Offenbarung Johannis. Zurich,
Hanke, 1844.

342

Appendices.

AUTHOR. TITLE OF WORK OR WORKS, ETC.
Hilgenfeld, . Die Jiidische Apokalyptik. 1857. Riehm adopts
his view of the passage cited from this Third
Sibylline Book, p. 195.
Hitzig, . Die Psalmen. 1863. Die Kleinen Propheten.
1852. (More recent edition by Steiner, 1881.)
Hofmann, Weissagung und Erfiillung. 1841. Schrifibeweis.
Hupfeld, . . Commentatio de prvmitiva et vera festorum apud
Hebraeos ratione. 1852.
Kamphausen, . Article in Bunsen's Bibelwerk, referred to p. 195
(note).
Keil, . . . Kommentar zu Hesekiel and other Commentaries
(Eng. Transl., Keil and Delitzsch Commentaries,
T. & T. Clark).
Keim, . . Geschichte Jesu von Nazara. (Eng. Transl.,
Williams & Norgate.)
Knobbl, . . . Com. on Numbers, p. 96.
Kohlek, . . . Die nachexilischen Propheten. Erlangen 1861.
Konig, Fr. Ed., Der Offenbarungs begriff des Alten Testamentes.
2 vols. Leipzig 1882. His literalistic view of
prophetic revelation discussed at length by
Riehm, pp. 29 ff. Die Hauptprobleme der
altisraelitischen Religionsgeschichte gegenuber
den Entwickelungstheoretikem beleuchtet. Leip
zig 1884. (Eng. Transl., T. & T. Clark, 1885.)
Kuper, . . . Das Prophetenthum des Alten Bundes. Leipzig
1870. His view of the "contents" of a pro
phecy discussed, pp. 9 f. (note).
LtiCKE, . . See above on de Wette.
Meyer, ... On Rom. 11. 25 ffi, p. 265. (Clark's Transl.)
Oehler, . . . Prolegomena zur Theologie des Alten Testamentes.
1845. See also below : M. and E. A.
Orelli, von, . Die alttestamentliche Weissagung von der Vollen-
dung des Gottesreiches. Vienna 1882. (Eng.
Transl., T. & T. Clark.)
Pfleiderer, . Die Religion ihr ¦ Wesen und ¦ ihre Geschichte.
Riehm's reference (p. 54) is to the second, not
to the latest edition. (Transl., Williams &
Norgate. )
Reuss, . . . Die Geschichte der heiligen Schriften Alten Testa
mentes. 1881 (new ed. 1890).
Riehm, . . Lehrbegriff des Hebraerbriefes. 1858. Hcund-
wOrterbuch des biblischen Alterthums. 1884.
Referred to p. 237 (note) in elucidation of
phrase ' ' heavenly Jerusalem. " (See also below
M. andE. A.)
Rothe, . . . Zur Dogmatik. 1863.
Schrader, . . Die Keilinschriften und das Alte Testam.ent con
firms Riehm's view of Micah 4. 10 (p. 146).
Schultz, Herm., Alttestamentliche Theologie. Frankfurt a. Main
second ed. 1878. See also M. and E. A.
Simson, . . On Hos. 1. 11, p. 180.

C. — Modern Works.

343

AUTHOR. TITLE OF WORK OR WORKS, ETC.
Smend, . . ., Moses apud Prophetas. 1875. See also M. and
E. A.
Stade, . . . See M. and E. A . Opinion as to origin of concep
tion, Kingdom of God, rejected by Riehm,
p. 89.
Stahelin, . . On Zech. 6. 13 (p. 200).
Steiner, . . On Hitzig's Kleinen Propheten, p. 202.
Tholuck, . . Die Propheten und ihre Weissagungen. On mode
of revelation to prophets, p. 20 (note). Das
Alte Testament im Neuen Testament. On N.T.
citations of O.T. passages, p. 307 (note).
Vatke, . . Biblische Theologie. 1835. Opinion on Kingdom
of God, p. 89 (above).
Weber, . . . System der altsynagogalen palastinischen Theologie.
Leipzig 1880. On significance of bath kol, p. 31
and elsewhere.
Weiss, Bern., . Das Leben Jesu. 2 vols., 1882. Second ed. 1884.
Third ed. 1888. On historicity of Christ's
birth at Bethlehem, p. 312. (Transl., T. &-T.
Clark.)
Wellhausen, . Geschichte Israels. 1878. Prolegomena zur Ges
chichte Israels. 1883. (Transl. A. & C. Black.)
On time when covenant-idea became central in
consciousness of Israel, p. 67.
WtiNSCHE, . . On Joel 3. 19, p. 157.

MAGAZINE AND ENCYCLOPAEDIA ARTICLES
REFERRED TO BY RIEHM.
I. Allgemeine Missionszeitschrift — Dr. "Warneck, referred
to p. 210.
AUTHOR. TITLE OF ARTICLE.
Riehm, . . . Der Missionsgedanke im Alten Testament, 1880,
pp. 453 ffi, refd. to pp. 98 and 210.
II. Evangelische Kirchenzeitung.
Hengstenberg, Die Jwden und die Christliche Kirche, May 1857,
refd. to p. 268.

III. Jahrbucher fur Deutsche Theologie.
Auberlen, . . Abhandlung iiber die messianischen Weissagungen
der mosaischen Zeit, 1858, Pt. iv. pp. 791,
801 ffi, 834 ff. Refd. to p. 240, etc.

344

Appendices.

AUTHOR. TITLE OF ARTICLE.
Bertheau,. . Die AlttestamentUche Weissagung von Israels Reichs
herrlichkeit in seinem Lande, 1859, vol. iv. p.
603 (refd. to p. 19), and id. pp. 595 ff, and
v. pp. 486 ff. (p. 133, etc.).
. . IV. p. 352, on Deut. 18. 22 (p. 144).
,, . IV. pp. 622 and 626, on historical sense of pro
phecy (p. 152).
,, . . IV. pp. 334-353, on unfulfilled prophecy (p. 223).
Diestel, . Die Idee der Gerechtigkeit im Alten Testamente,
1860, vol. v. pp. 176 f. (p. 91).- '
,, . . Die Idee des theokratischen Ksnigs, vol. viii.
pp. 536 ff. (p. 102, etc.).
IV. Handwbrterbuch des bibliscJien, Alterthums — Eiehm.
Riehm, ... " Zeichen und Wunder '' — Criticism of Hengsten
berg, p. 23.
, , . " Priester, " on priestly functions of Davidic kings,
p. 118.
„ ... " Zeitrechnung," frequently referred to in confirma
tion of dates given by Riehm.
... "Thron," on Zech. 6. 13, p. 200.
V. Realencyklopadie — Herzog.
Baumgarten, . " Ezechiel," on fulfilment of ritual details sketched
by Ezekiel (iv. pp. 303 f., first ed.), p. 240.
Oehler, . ' . . " Konige Konigthum in Israel," p. 102.
,, ... "Messias" (first ed. p. 414), on origin of kingly
conception of the Messiah, p. 186.
,, . . "Weissagung," vol. xvii., at p. 18 et passim.

Riehm,

Smend,

Riehm,

VI. Studien und Kritiken.
1864, pp. 552 ff., on Johannine Christology. Refd.
to p. 2.
1872, pp. 558 ffi, on prophet's knowledge of the
future. Refd. to p. 50.
1883, pp., 803 ff, criticism of v. Orelli. Refd. to
p. 10, etc.
Ueber die von den Propheten des 8 Jahrhunderts
vorausgesetzte Entwickelungsstufe der israel
itischen Religion, 1876, Pt. iv. esp. pp. 622 ff.
Refd. to p. 65, etc.

VII. Pamphlet.

Ueber die besondere Bedeutung des Alten Testa
ments fur die religiose Erkenntniss und das
religiose Leben der christlichen Gemeinde,
Halle 1864. Refd. to p. 320.

D. — Recent Literature on Messianic Prophecy. '345

REFERENCE.

Schultz, Herm., Ueber doppelten Schriftsinn, 1866, on acquired Mes
sianic sense of some of Psalms. Refd. to p. 299.

VIII. Zeitschrift fur die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft —
Stade.
Nowack, . . 1884, p. 286, on Micah 4. 10. Refd. to p. 147.
Stade, . . . 1881, pp. 1 ffi, and 1882, pp. 151 ff, and 275 ff, on
date of Zech. 9. 11. Refd. to p. 182.
. . 1881, p. 10, on Zech. 6. 13. Refd. to p. 200.
. . 1881, p. 167, on Micah 4. 10. Refd. to. p. 147.

D.— EECENT LITERATURE ON , MESSIANIC
PROPHECY, OR ON THE GROWTH OF
MESSIANIC IDEA IN JEWISH HISTOEY.
(For the part of the lists following which exhibit the principal
literature up to 1886, I am mainly indebted to Mr. Stanton's Jewish
and Christian Messiah ; the part dealing with the literature subse
quent to 1886, I owe mainly to the courtesy of Dr. P. Schmiedel of
Jena.) I. Monographs.
AUTHOR. WORK.
Anger, . . . Vorlesungen uber die Geschichte der Messianischen
Idee. 1873.
Baldensperger, Das Selbstbeviusstein Jesu im Liahte der Messian
ischen Hoffnungen seiner Zeit. Strassburg^
Heitz u. Miindel, 1888. (For a review of this
work, see art. by Rev. A. Halliday Douglas,
M.A., Theological Review and F. C. CoUege
Quarterly, April 1889.)
Baron, . . . Rays of Messiah's Glory. London, Hod. &Stought,
1886. 270 pp.
Briggs, . . . Messianic Prophecy. (Aims at complete exegetical
treatment of Messianic passages. ) Clark, Edin. ;
Scribner, N.Y. 579 pp.
Castelli, . . II Messia Secondo gli Ebrei. 1874.
Delitzsch,* . Messianische Weissagungen in geschichtlicher Folge.
Faber, Leipzig 1890. 160 pp.
* Transl. by Prof. Curtiss, Chicago. In press, Clark.

346

Appendices.

AUTHOR. WORK.
Drummond, . The Jewish Messiah. 1877. (Still perhaps the main
English authority on this aspect of the subject.)
Gloag, . The Messianic Prophecies (Baird Lecture for 1879).
Clark, Edin.
Hilgenfeld, . Die Jiidische Apokalyptik in Hirer geschichtlichen
Entwickelung." 1857.
Orelli, y., . Old Testament Prophecy of the Consummation of
God's Kingdom. (Clark's Transl. )
Reinhard, . . Der WelterlOser im Alten Testament, ins besondere
im Buche Genesis und in den Mythen der Heiden-
welt. Publ. by the author, 1888. 149 pp.
Scott, . . "Historical Development of the Messianic Idea"
(Old Testament Student, 1888, 176-180).
Stanton, . . The Jewish and Christian Messiah : A Study in the
Earliest History of Christianity. Clark, Edin.,
1886. 394 pp. (The latest great work of English
growth. )

II. Works dealing in part with the Subject, or some
aspect of it.
Alexander, . A System of Biblical Theology. Edin., Clark, 1888.
2 vols. 960 pp.
Bauer (Bruno), Kritik der Evangelischen Geschichte der Synoptiker
(see vol. i. pp. 391-416). 1841.
Breuil, V. du, La Lfyende du Messie. Paris 1890. 398 pp.
Candlish, . The Kingdom of God, biblically and historically
considered. Edin., Clark, 1884.
Colani, . . Jesus-Christ et les Croyances Messianiques de son
temps. Second ed., 1864.
Dalman, . . Jesaia 53 — erldutert. Leipzig, Faber, 1890, price Is.
Davidson, S., The Doctrine of Last Things contained in the N.T.,
compared with the Notions of the Jews and the
Statements of Church Creeds. 1882. ("Mainly
occupied with a comparison of different writings
of the N.T. ; comp.^with the 'notions of the
Jews ' very slightly done." — Stanton.)
Dusterwald, . Die Weltreiche und das Gotlesreich nach den Weissa
gungen des Profeten Daniel. Freiburg - in-
Baden, Herder, 1890. 144 pp.
Edersheim, . The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, Book ii.,
c. v., "What Messiah did the Jews expect?"
1883.
Ewald, . . . History of Israel. See esp. vol. vi., Eng. Transl.,
pp. 103-1 21, besides many scattered notices.
Forbes,. . . The Servant of the Lord in Isa. xl.-lxvi. reclaimed lo
Isaiah as the Author from argument, structure,
and date. Edin., Clark, 1890.

D. — Recent Literature on Messianic Prophecy. 347

AUTHOR. WORK.
Hellwag, . . " Die Vorstellung von der Praexistenz Christi in der
altesten Kirche," Theol. Jahrbb., von Baur u.
Zeiler, 1848, pp. 144-161, 227-240.
Hausrath, . History of the New Testament Times (Eng. Transl.,
W. & N, 1880). See esp. vol. i. pp. 191-206,
vol. ii. pp. 222-251.
Holtzmann, . "Die Messias-Idee zur Zeit Jesu," Jahrbb. f. d.
Theol. vol. xii. Heft 3, pp. 389-411. 1867.
Jost, .... Geschichte des' Judenthums u. Seiner Sekten, i. 309,
396-97. 1857-59.
Kayser, . . Die Theologie des Alten Testaments in Hirer
Geschichtlichen Entwickelung. Ed. Reuss,
Strassburg, Universitatsbuchhandlung, 1886.
264 pp.
Keim, . . . Life of Jesus of Nazara. Eng. Transl. (W. & N.).
See esp. vol. i. pp. 314-327, vol. iv. pp. 256-343,
and vol. vi. pp. 384-end.
King, . . . The Yalkuion Zechariah, translated with Notes and
Appendices. Appendix A, pp. 85-108, on
Messiah Ben- Joseph. 1882.
Kuenen, . Religion of Israel (Eng. Transl.), iii. 259-273.
Lang, . . . "Die Messias-Ideen der Juden,"art. in Zeitstimmen
aus der reformirten Kirche der Schweiz, 1865.
Langen, . Das Judenthum in Paldstina zur Zeit Christi,
p. 331-end, "also discussion of documents"
(Stanton). 1866.
Lucre, . . . Versuch einer Vollstandigen Einleitung in die Offen
barung des Johannes (4th vol. of Com. on
Writings of St. John), second ed., 1852. See
esp. pp. 17-212. Riehm quotes from this work,
p. 322.
Muller, . . Parallelen zu den messianischen Weissagungen und
Typen des Alten Testaments aus dem hellenischcn
Alterthum. Leipzig 1875.
Neumann, . . Die Messianischen Erscheinungen bei den Juden,
1865.
Piepenbring, . Tliiologie de VAncien Testament. Paris, Fisch-
bacher, 1886. 315 pp.
Riehm, . . . A Ittestamentliche Theologie, revised and edited since
the author's death by K. Pahnke. Halle,
Strien, 1889. 440 pp. See a review of this
work by Prof. A. B. Davidson in the Critical
Review of Theol. and Phil. Lit. vol. i. No. 1,
pp. 28 ff.
Romheld, . . Theologia Sacrosancta, Grundlinien der biblischen
Theologie. Gotha, Schloessmann, 1888-89,
2 vols. 526 and 616 pp. (Author seeks to
prove that Jehovah ( Yah'veh) is everywhere to
be identified with Jesus. )
Schenkel,. . Arts. " Messias " and " Messianische Weissagungen "
in Bibel- Lexicon, 1871.

348

Appendices.

AUTHOR. WORK.
Schlottmann, Kompendium der biblischen Theologie des Alten u.
Neuen Testaments, edited by E. Kiihn. Leip
zig, Dbrffling u. Franke, 1889, 192 pp.
Schultz, . Alttestamentliche Theologie. Fourth (completely re
vised) ed. Gottingen, Vandenhoeck u. Rup-
recht, 1889. 823 pp. (Exceedingly full on all
the elements of Messianic Hope. See esp. Part
iv.)
Schurer, . Gesch. des JudischenV dikes im Zeitalter Jesu. (Eng.
Transl. just completed, 1890, in 5 vols., Edin.,
Clark. With valuable Index q. vid. on
"Messiah" and "Messianic Hope.")
Vernes, . . . Histoire des Idies Messianiques, depuis Alexandre
jusqu' d I'empereur Hadrien. 1874.
Weber, . . . System der Altsynagogalen Paldstinischen Theologie
aus Targum, Midrasch und Talmud, 4th
Section, pp. 322-386. 1880.
Weidnek, . . Biblical Theology of 0. T. based on Oehler. Phila
delphia, Garner, 1886. 224 pp.
West, . . . Eschatology. Chicago, Fleming, 1889. 493 "pp.
Wittichen, Die Idee des Reiches Gottes. 1872.
Young, . . . The Christology of the Targums. 1853.
Zeller, . . . Theologische Jahrbb. for 1843, pp. 35-52.
ZOckler, . . Handbuch der theologischen Wissenschaften, vol. i.
third ed. pp. 422-477 : Theologie des Alten
Testaments, von F. W. Schultz, ergiinzt von
K. v. Orelli. 1888.

III. Editions of some of the chief Jewish Documents.

Alexandre, Dillmann, .

Fritzsche, .

Sohodde.

Oracula Sibyllina. 1869.
Das Buch Henoch, jiebersetzt u. erklarl. 1853.
"Das Buch der Jubilaen, oder die kleine Genesis ;
aus dem Aethiopischen iibersetzt," in Ewald's
Jahrb. der Bibl. Wissensch. 1850-51.
Libri Apocryphi Vet. Test, quibus accedunt Pseud-
epigraphi selecii. "For Psalms of Solomon,
Fourth Book of Esdras, the Apocalypse of
Baruch, and the Assumption of Moses " (Stan
ton), 1871.
Enoch. Andover 1882. (The only Eng. edition of
the Book of Enoch.)

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 The Framework of the Church. A Treatise on Church Govern
ment, 8vo, $3.75.
Konig (Dr. F. E.) — The Religious History of Israel. A Discussion of
the Chief Problems in Old Testament History as opposed to the Development
Theorists. Crown 8vo, $1.50.
Krummacher (Dr. F. W.) — The Suffering Saviour ; or, Meditations on the
Last Days of the Sufferings of Christ. Eighth Edition, crown 8vo, $2.40.
 David, the King of Israel : A Portrait drawn from Bible History
and the Book of Psalms. Second Edition, crown 8vo, $2.40.
Kurtz (Prof.) — Handbook of Church History. Two vols. 8vo, $6.00.
 Histoey of the Old Covenant. Three vols. 8vo, $9.00.
Laidlaw (Prof.) — The Bible Docteine of Man. 8vo, $4.00.
Lechler (Prof. G. V., D.D.) — The Apostolic and Post-Apostolic Times.
Their Diversity and Unity in Life and Doctrine. Two vols. cr. 8vo, $6.00.
Lehmann (Pastor) — Scenes fbom the Life of Jesus. Crown 8vo, $1.50.
Lichtenberger's HlSTOBY OF GEBMAN THEOLOGY IN THE NINETEENTH
Century. Bevised and brought up to date, with important additions
specially prepared for this English Edition by the Author. 8vo, $5.00.
Lisco (F. G.) — Parables of Jesus Explained. Fcap. 8vo, $2.00.
Lotze (Hermann) — Microcosmus : An Essay concerning Man and his Relation
to the World. 8vo (1450 pages), one vol., $6.00.
Luthardt, Kahnis, and Bruckner — The Church. Crown 8vo, $2.00.
Luthardt (Prof.)— St. John the Author of the Fourth Gospel. $3.00.
 History of Christian Ethics. Vol. I. $3.00.
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Peculiar Character. Three vols. 8vo, $9.00.
 Apologetic Lectures on the Fundamental Truths of Chris
tianity (Seventh Edition). Crown 8vo, $2.00.
 Saving Truths of Christianity (Fifth Edition). Crown 8vo, $2.00.
.  Moral Truths of Christianity (Third Edition'). Crown 8vo, $2.00.

T. and T. Clark's Publications.

Mair (A., D.D.) — Studies in the Christian Evidences. Second Edition,
crown 8vo, $2.00.
Martensen (Bishop)— Christian Dogmatics : A Compendium of the Doctrines
of Christianity. 8vo, $3.00.
 Christian Ethics. (General Ethics.) 8vo, $3.00.
 • Christian Ethics. (Individual Ethics.) 8vo, $3.00.
 Christian Ethics. (Social Ethics.) 8vo, $3.00.
Matheson (Geo., D.D.)— Growth of the Spirit of Christianity, from the
First Century to the. Dawn of the Lutheran Era. Two vols. 8vo, $7.50.
 Aids to the Study of Geeman Theology. Third Edition, $1.50.
Meyer (Dr.) — Ceitical and Exegetical Commentary on St. Matthew's
Gospel. Two vols. 8vo, $6.00.
 On Mark and Luke. Two vols. 8vo, $6.00.
 On St. John's Gospel. Two vols. 8vo, $6.00.
 On Acts of the Apostles. Two vols. 8vo, $6.00.
 On the Epistle to the Romans. Two vols. 8vo, $6.00.
'  On Corinthians. Two vols. 8vo, $6.00.
 On Galatians. 8vo, $3.00.
 On Ephesians and Philemon. One vol. 8vo, $3.00.
 On Philippians and Colossians. One vol. 8vo, $3.00.
 On Thessalonians. (Dr. Lunemann.) One vol. 8vo, $3.00.
 The Pastoral Epistles. (Dr. Huther.) 8vo, $3.00.
 The Epistle to the Hebrews. (Dr. Liinemann.) 8vo, $3.00.
 St. James' and St. John's Epistles. (Huther.) 8vo, $3.00. '
 Peter and Jude. (Dr. Huther.) One vol. 8vo, $3.00.
*** This translation is from the last edition revised by the late Dr. Meyer.
Michie (Charles, M.A.) — Bible Words and Phrases. 18mo, 40 cents.
Monrad (Dr. D. G.)— The World of Prayer. Crown 8vo, $1.80.
Muller (Dr. Julius) — The Christian Doctrine of Sin. An entirely New
Translation from the Fifth German Edition. Two vols. 8vo, $6.00.
Naville (Ernesjfc) — The Problem of Evil. Crown 8vo, $1.80.
 The Christ. Translated by Rev. T. J. Despres. Cr. 8vo, $1.80.
 Modern Physics : Studies Historical and Philosophical. Translated
by Kev. Henry Downton, M.A. Crown 8vo, $2.00.
Nicoll (W. E., LL.D.) — The Incarnate Savioue : A Life of Jesus Christ.
Crown 8vo, $2.40.
Oehler (Prof.)— Theology of the Old Testament. Two vols. 8vo, $6.00.
Oosterzee (Dr. Van) — The Yeae of Salvation. Words of Life for Every
Day. A Book of Household Devotion. Two vols. 8vo, $2.40 each.
 Moses : A Biblical Study. Crown 8vo, $2.40.
Orelli — Old Testament Peophecy regarding the Consummation of the
Kingdom of God. 8vo, $3.00.
 Prophecies of Isaiah. Demy 8vo, $3.00.
 Prophecies of Jeremiah. 8vo, $3.00.
Philippi (F. A.) — Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans. From the
Third Improved Edition, by Eev. Professor Banks. Two vols. 8vo, $6.00.
Pressense (Edward de) — The Redeemer : Discourses. Crown 8vo, $2.40.
Piinjer (Bernhard) — History of the Christian Philosophy of Religion
from the Eeformation to Kant. 8vo, $5.25.
Bahiger (Prof.) — Encyclopaedia of Theology. Two vols. 8vo, $6.00.
Eainy (Principal)— Delivery and Development of Christian Doctrine.
(The Fifth Series of the Cunningham Lectures.) 8vo, $4.00.
Reuseh (Prof.) — Nature and the Bible : Lectures on the Mosaic History of
Creation in relation to Natural Science. Two vols. 8vo, $7.50.
Riehm (Prof.) — Messianic Prophecy. New Edition in the Press.
Eothe (Prof.) — Sermons for the Christian Year. Crown 8vo, $1.50.
Saisset — Manual of Modern Pantheism. Two vols. 8vo, $4.00.
Sartorius (Dr. E.) — Doctrine of Divine Love. 8vo, $3.00.

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Schmid's Biblical Theology of the New Testament. 8vo, $3.00.
Schiirer (Prof.)— History of the New Testament Times. Div. II. Three
vols. 8vo, $9.00.
Scott (Jas., M.A., D.D.) — Principles of New Testament Quotation
Established and Applied to Biblical Criticism. Crown 8vo, 2nd
Edition, $1.50.
Simon (Eev. Prof. D. W.) — The Bible ; An Outgrowth of Theocratic Life.
Crown 8vo, $1.80.
 Redemption of Man. Discussions bearing on the Atonement.
Demy 8vo, $4.00.
Smeaton (Prof.) — The Docteine of the Atonement as Taught by Christ
Himself. Second Edition, 8vo, $4.20.
 On the Doctrine of the Holy Spirit. 2nd Edition. 8vo, $3.60.
Smith (Prof. Thos., D.D.) — Medleval Missions. Crown 8vo, $1.80.
Stahlin (Leonhard) — Kant, Lotze, and Ritschl : A Critical Examination.
8vo, $3.00.
Stalker (Eev. Jas., D.D.) — The Life of Jesus Christ. New Edition, in
larger type. Crown 8vo, $1.50.
 Life of St. Paul. Large Type Edition. Crown 8vo, $1.50.
Stanton (V. H., M.A.) — The Jewish and The Christian Messiah. A
Study in the Earliest History of Christianity. 8vo, $4.00.
Steinmeyer (Dr. F. L.) — The Miracles of Our Lord : Examined in their
relation to Modern Criticism. 8vo, $3.00.
 The History of the Passion and Resurrection of Our Lord,
considered in the light of Modern Criticism. 8vo, $3.00.
Stevenson (Mrs.) — The Symbolic Parables : The Predictions of the Apoca
lypse in relation to the General Truths of Scripture. Crown 8vo, $1.40.
Steward (Eev. G.) — Mediatorial Soveeeignty : The Mystery of Christ and
the Revelation of the Old and New Testaments. Two vols. 8vo, $8.40.
 The Argument of the Epistle to the Hebrews. 8vo, $4.20.
Stier (Dr. Rudolph)— On the Words of the Lord Jesus. Eight vols. 8vo. $24.00.
 The Words of the Risen Saviour, and Commentaey on the
Epistle of St. James. 8vo, $3.00.
 The Words of the Apostles Expounded. 8vo, $3.00.
Tholuck (Prof.) — Light from the Cross. Third Edition, crown 8vo, $2.00.
Tophel (Pastor G.)— The Work of the Holy Spirit. Crown 8vo, $1.00.
Ullmann (Dr. Carl) — Reformers before the Reformation, principally in
Germany and the Netherlands. Two vols. 8vo, $6.00.
 The Sinlessness of Jesus : An Evidence for Christianity. Fourth
Edition, crown 8v0, $2.25.
Urwick (W., M.A.) — The Servant of Jehovah : A Commentary upon
Isaiah Iii. 13-liii. 12 : with Dissertations upon Isaiah xl.-lxvi. 8vo, $2.40.
Vinet.— Life of Alexandee Vinet. By Lauea M. Lane. Post 8vo, $3.00.
Walker (J., D.D.) — Theology and Theologians of Scotland. New
Edition, crown 8vo, $1.40.
Watts (Prof.)— The Newee Ceiticism and the Analogy of the Faith.
Third Edition, crown 8vo, $2.00.
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of Telic Causal Efficiency. Crown 8vo, $2.40.
Weiss (Prof.)— Biblical Theology of New Testament. 2 vols. 8vo, $6.00.
.  Life of Cheist. Three vols. 8vo, $9.00. >-
White (Rev. M.) — Symbolical Numbees of Sceipture. Crown 8vo, $1.50.
Winer (Dr. G. B.)— A Treatise on the Grammae of New Testament
Greek, regarded as the Basis of New Testament Exegesis. Third Edition,
edited by W. F. Moui.ton, D.D. Ninth English Edition, 8vo, $6.00
.  The Docteines and Confessions of Christendom. 8vo, $3.00.
Witherow (Prof. T., D.D.)— The Form of the Christian Temple. 8vo, $4.00.
Workman (Prof. G. 0.)— The Text of Jeremiah ; or, A Critical Investigation
of the Greek and Hebrew, with the Variations in the LXX Retranslated into
the Original and Explained. Post 8vo, $3.60.
Wright (C. H., D.D.)— Biblical Essays. Crown 8vo, $2.00.

MESSRS. SCRIBNER & WELFORD specially invite1 particular attention to
the following valuable Works issued in the Series
"CLARK'S FOREIGN THEOLOGICAL LIBRARY,"

Baumgarten— The History of the Church in the Apostolic Age. Three vols.
Bleek— Introduction to the New Testament. Two vols.
Cassel's Commentary on Esther. One vol.
Delitzsch— Commentary on Job. Two vols.
 New Commentary on Genesis. Two vols.
 Commentary on the Psalms. Three vols.
 Commentary on the Proverbs of Solomon. Two vols.
 Commentary on Song of Solomon and Ecclesiastes. One vol.
 Commentary on the Prophecies of Isaiah. Two vols.
 New Commentary on Isaiah. Vol. I. now ready.
 Commentary on Epistle to the Hebrews. Two vols.
A System of Biblical Psychology. One vol.

Dorner— A System of Christian Doctrine. Four vols.
 History of the Development of the Doctrine of tha Person of Christ. Five vols.
Ebrard— Commentary on the Epistles of St. John. One vol.
 The Gospel History. One vol.
 Apologetics. Three vols.
Ewald— Revelation: Its Nature and Record. One vol.
 Old and New Testament Theology. One vol.
Frank's System of Christian Certainty. One vol.
Gebhardt— Doctrine of the Apocalypse. One vol.
Godet— Commentary on St. Luke's Gospel. Two vols.
 Commentary on St. John's Gospel. Three vols.
 Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans. Two vols.
 Commentary on First Corinthians. Two vols.
Goebel— On the Parables. One vol.
Hagenbach— History of the Reformation. Two vols.
 History of Christian Doctrines. Three vols.
Harless -A System of Christian Ethics. One vol.
Haupt— Commentary on the First Epistle of St. John. One vol.
Havernlck - General Introduction to the Old Testament. One vol.
Hengstenberg— Christology of the Old Testament. Four vols.
 Commentary on the Psalms. Three vols.
 On the Book of Ecclesiastes. Etc. etc. One vol.
 Commentary on the Gospel of St. John. Two vols.
 Commentary on Ezekiel. One vol.
 The Kingdom of God under the Old Covenant. Two vols.
Keil — Introduction to the Old Testament. Two vols.
 Commentary on the Pentateuch. Three vols.
 Commentary on Joshua, Judges, and Ruth. One vol.
 Commentary on the Books of Samuel. One vol.
 Commentary on the Books of Kings. One vol.
 Commentary on the Books of Chronicles. One vol.
 Commentary on Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther. One vol.
 Commentary on Jeremiah and Lamentations. Two vols.
 Commentary on Ezekiel. Two vols.
 Commentary on the Book of Daniel. One vol.
 Commentary on the Minor Prophets. Two vols.
 Biblical Archaeology. Two vols.
Kurtz— History of the Old Covenant; or, Old Testament Dispensation. Three vols.
Luthardt— Commentary on the Gospel of St. John. Three vols.
 History of Christian Ethics. Vol. I
Martensen— Christian Dogmatics. One vol.
 Christian Ethics. General— Social— Individual. Three vols.
Muller — The Christian Doctrine of Sin. Two vols.
Oehler— Biblical Theology of the Old Testament. Two vols.
Orelli— Prophecy regarding Consummation of God's Kingdom. One vol.
 Commentary on Isaiah. One vol.
 Commentary on Jeremiah. One vol.
Philippi— Commentary on Epistle to Romans. Two vols.
RKbiger— Encyclopsadia of Theology. Two vols.
Sartorius— The Doctrine of Divine Love. One vol.
Schiirer— The Jewish People in the Time of Christ. Division I. Vol. I. Division II. Three vols.
Steinmeyer— History of the Passion and Resurrection of our Lord. One vol.
Stier— The Words of the Lord Jesus. Eight vols.
 The Words of the Risen Saviour, and Commentary on Epistle of St. James. One vol
 The Words of the Apostles Expounded. One vol.
Ullmann— Reformers before the Reformation. Two vols.
Weiss— Biblical Theology of the New Testament. Two vols.
 The Life of Christ. Three vols.
Winer— Collection of the Confessions of Christendom. One vol.
*** For Prices of the above Works see preceding pages.