Luke also records from the mouth of the angel announcing the birth of Jesus the new designation of * Saviour ' — if we can call a designa- ' Saviour' tion new which is so plainly adumbrated in a passage like Mt i^^ (cf. also Lk 1910)." But this is so little un-Messianic that it is not only connected with the Messianic prophecies by adjacent references (i'*''^, cf. 2^*^ 3^), but is expressly defined as Messianic in the annunciation itself: "a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord" (2"). Like Mt i"^, this passage clearly indicates that to the circle In which Jesus moved His coming as the Messiah was connected with the great series of prophecies which promised the advent of Jehovah for the redemption of His people, as truly as with those which predicted the coming of the Davidic King. The terms, " a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord," are, indeed, an express combination of the two lines of prophecy, and import
1* cf. Meyer on 7^6. "They saw in this miracle a a-qiisiov of a great prophet, and in His appearance they saw the beginning of the Messianic deliverance (comp. 168-79) _» Qn the whole subject, cf. Stanton, Jeijjish and Christian Messiah, 126 seq.
15 Cf. Plummer in loc: " Here first in N. T. is (tcdttjp used of Christ, and here only in Luke. Not in Matthew or Mark, and only once in John (4*2) ; twice in Acts (531 1323) j and frequently in Titus and a Peter."
io8 The Designations of Our Lord
that the Child who was bom in the city of David was both the promised Redeemer of Israel and the Anointed King that was to come. Question may arise, indeed, as to how we are to construe these collocated designations. Some^^ would wish us to take each sepa- rately, with an indefinite article to each: "There is born to you a Saviour, who is an Anointed One, a Lord." Others^'' suggest that at least ' Messiah ' and 'Lord' be kept separate: "There is bom to you a Deliverer, who is Messiah, Lord." In either of these constructions we have three separate designations which so far explain one another: this Child is at once a Saviour, the promised Messiah, and Sovereign Lord of men and angels — for it is an angel who speaks these words. The essential meaning cannot be far from this in any case.^^ Even if we should read " who is Mes- siah, the Lord, " or even " who is an anointed Lord,"^' we have got but little away from this general sense : in either case what is said is that the Saviour is the promised Messiah and therefore entitled to our obe- dience as our Lord. Nor is much more said if we give the phrase the utmost definiteness possible, and translate, " There is born to you this day in the city of David that Deliverer who is the Messiah, the Lord,"^** — as, on the whole, we think we ought to read
I*' E.g. Holtzmann, Weiss.
1" E.g. Meyer.
IS " In any event," says Weiss, " it is meant that this Deliverer is an Anointed Lord, and therefore destined to be the King of Israel." But Weiss, who wishes to read only, " a Deliverer who is an Anointed One, a Lord," takes too low a view.
19 E.g. Paulus.
20 So Hahn: "ffwrrjp, not 'a Deliverer' (Paulus, Me3Tr, Bleek, Ewald, Weiss, Hofmann, Keil, Nosgen, Holtzmann), but 'the Deliv-
The Designations in Luke 109
it, in the light of the distinction made between the two designations ' Messiah ' and ' Lord ' in such a passage as Acts 2^°, where Peter declares to the house of Israel that God has made Jesus both ' Lord ' and ' Christ.' The precise distinction intended to be signalized be- tween ' Christ ' and ' Lord ' is, no doubt, difficult to trace : perhaps there lies in it a testimony to the wider content of the idea of Messiahship than that of mere sovereign power; perhaps a testimony to a higher con- notation of the term ' Lord ' than that of mere Mes- sianic dignity. In any event there is here a declaration that in this Child born in the city of David, the func- tions of Redemption, Messiahship and Supreme Lord- ship are united.
Almost immediately afterward we are told that it had been revealed to Simeon that " he should not see
^ , death before he had seen the Lord's
Christ' Christ" (2^^) — an Old Testament ex- pression (Ps 2", cf. Lk 9^*^, Acts 4-^) here applied to the infant Jesus, who is by it identified as the promised Messiah.^^ Accordingly in announcing the birth of this Child, who is thus so emphatically presented as the Messiah, the angel is represented as
erer ' (Luther, De Wette). The article is wanting not from inadver- tence (De Wette), but because it is made superfluous by the succeeding relative clause. The sense is: 'the particular Deliverer, who' . . . This Deliverer is characterized by the A'pifrrdi^ xupcog as the prom- ised Messiah. We are not to explain: ' a Messiah, a Lord ' (Holtzmann) ; and not: 'one anointed to Lordship' (Paulus) ; but the two expres- sions are two separate designations of the expected Messiah (cf. Acts 2^^) :Xpi(Tr(')<s the then popularly current name of the Messiah; xupcoi;, the designation of His Sovereign dignity."