-^ This language is borrowed from Holtzmann, Hand-Corn., p. 76: "The demon recognizes in Him the Holy One of God, i.e., Him whom God has separated out, equipped and dedicated to His service (cf. Jno 669 jo38 — the 'Elect One' of the Book of Enoch), whom the demoniacs (Mk 3^1) immediately recognize and fear as such: for the Messiah's task is to judge and destroy the demons (the evil spirit speaks in the name of his fellows, too, 'us'). They divine, therefore, at once Jesus' greatness and their own fate." In this view it is not the moral purity of Jesus over against their wickedness that the demons divine; but the official task of Jesus which they are aware of. Similarly Ernst Issel, Der Begriff der Heiligkeit im N. T., 1887, p. 67 seq.: " In Mk I-*, cf. Lk 4^*, we have the most original application of the notion [of holiness] to Jesus. The title ' the Holy One of God ' is clearly a well known one, on hearing which no one could be in doubt who was meant. The same evangelist [Mk], at 3^1, opens the way to under- standing it by recording that the demons cried out ' Thou art the Son of God.' That, however, is the title of the theocratic King . . . In the title of the theocratic ruler, the eye is just as little directed by the ' holy ' to ethical perfection as in the expression ' Son of God.' The Messiah is ' the Holy One of God,' as He whom the Father has sanctified, Jno lo^^, that is, as He whom God has chosen and endowed for His special possession and service. There speaks for this also the designation ' the Chosen One,' Lk 23^^ 9^5. To this election to God's possession and service limits itself also the designation in Lk i^s . . , and the representation of Jesus in the Temple, Lk 2-^ . . ."
The Designations in Luke 115
Jesus and their uncleanness may be presumed to have obtruded itself upon their consciousness, whenever they were brought into His presence.^^ Along with these titles we must note also that Luke, too, makes use of the title ' the Beloved,' though only at the baptism of our Lord (3"), replacing it at the transfiguration by ' the Chosen One ' (9^'') , and thus exhibiting the essen- tial synonymy of the two.^^
It may be profitable to recall at this point that the epi- thet ' holy ' is applied to our Lord also at the annun- ciation of His birth by the angel, when •Holy' ^^ ^^^ explained that it was the circum- stance that His birth was not according to nature, but due to the coming down upon Mary of the Holy Ghost and the overshadowing of her by the power of the Most High, which justified the Holy Thing which was being begotten in being called ' the Son of God ' ( i^^) . The epithet is not elsewhere applied to Jesus In this Gospel, except in 2^^, where the precept of the law is quoted In reference to Him, that " every male that openeth the womb shall be called holy to the Lord " — where It is obviously the conception of consecration which Is prominent. In the present passage, however. It seems equally plain that It Is not the notion of being set apart for God so much as that of being In Himself worthy of reverence and calling out veneration which Is prominent. He who Is thus supernaturally born Is " holy " In the sense that He brings with Him something of the superhuman
28 On the title ' Holy One of God ' see J. B. Bristow, Hastings' D. C. G., I. 730-31. He thinks it connects Jesus with God the Holy One; but in these passages refers particularly to Christ's dedication to a mission.
28 Cf. J. A. Robinson, as cited, esp. Eph., pp. 229 seq.
ii6 The Designations of Our Lord
character belonging to His origin, and is thus not set apart among men, but is by nature distinguished from men — shall we not say, "separate from sinners"?^" Nevertheless, the title ' Son of God ' as applied to our Lord in Luke is closely connected with His Messianic office : though, of course, it is not limited to that office in its implications. It occurs in this precise form but seldom. Besides the declaration of the announcing angel that He shall be called the ' Son of the Most High' (i^^) — evidently with a Messianic connotation, as the subsequent context shows, but by no means equally evidently with none but a human connotation, as also the subsequent context assures us (i^^), — It occurs only in the narrative of the Temptation, on the lips of Satan (4^-®)," and elsewhere on the lips of evil spirits (4*^ S'^ 'Son of the Most High God') who knew He was the Christ, and in the mouth of His judges when they adjured Him to tell whether He were ' the Christ,' and on His answering that they should from thenceforth see Him, ' the Son of Man,' seated at the right hand of God, demanded afresh, " Art thou, then, the Son of God? " (22^*^) }^ It seems clear, indeed, from these passages that the title ' Son of God ' was conceived as a Messianic title, and so far as the synonym of the simple ' Christ ' ; but it is