Foundation "°^ ^^ much to the Messianic thought
of Jesus' day as to the great variety of the modes of representation adopted in Old Testa- ment revelation to prepare the people of God for His future intervention for their redemption. The focus- ing of all these lines of prediction in Jesus, and their satisfaction in His manifestation, is one of the phe- nomena which marked His appearance, and differen- tiates the movem.ent inaugurated by Him from all other Messianic movements in Judaism — ^whether movements of thought merely or of action. He came forward and was recognized as the embodiment of the whole Mes- sianic preformation of the Old Testament, moderating the current one-sided exaggeration of some elements of it and emphasizing other elements of it which had been neglected, transfiguring elements of it which had been crassly apprehended and compacting the whole into a unitary fulfillment unimagined before His ap- pearance. What it particularly behooves us to take note of at the moment is the emphasis with which Jesus Is presented, by means of this long series of designa- tions, as the Messiah, and the exalted conception of the Messianic dignity which accompanies this emphatic attribution of it to Him. Nothing Is left unsaid which could be said in simple and straightforward narratives to make It clear to the reader that Jesus is the Messiah: and nothing is lacking in what Is said to make It clear that this Messiah Is more than a human, even a divine, person.
128 The Designations of Our Lord
It belongs to the emphasis which is placed on His Messianic character that no room is left for that de- Jesus' velopment of Jesus' Messianic con- Messianic sciousness which it has been the chief Claims desire of many modern students of His career to trace. Nor, indeed, is room left for justi- fiable lagging of recognition of His Messiahship on the part of His followers or of His contemporaries. He is exhibited as already conscious of His unique rela- tion to God as His Son, in the sole incident that is recorded of His early youth (Lk 2'*°). He is repre- sented as beginning His ministry under the profound impression necessarily made upon Him by His solemn designation as the Messiah by John the Baptist (Mt 3^^), confirmed as this was by a voice from the opened heavens proclaiming Him God's Son, His Beloved, In whom God was well pleased (Mt 3^^, Mk i^^ Lk 3"), and by His terrible experience of testing by Satan as the Son of God (Mt 4^'^, Lk 4^'^), and His succoring by the angels (Mk i^^). Accordingly He is repre- sented as opening His ministry by publicly applying to Himself the prophecy of Isaiah 61^ with its enumera- tion of the works of the Messiah (Lk 4i7.i8seq.j^ ^^^ as entering at once upon the performance of those works, not merely accepting the ascriptions of Mes- sianic dignity to Him which they elicited (Lk 5^ 4^"*''*S Mk i-^'^^ Mt 8^^ etc.), but Himself appealing to them as the criteria of His Messiahship (Mt II^ Lk 7^^). He is represented as, under the impulse of His sense of His mission (Mk i^^ Lk 4^^), preaching through- out the land in accents of authority (Mk i^^ Lk 4^^), asserting His power over the religious ordinances of the people (Mk 2^^ Mt I2^ Lk 6^), and exercising
The Jesus of the Synoptists 129
His authority not only over unclean spirits (e. g., Mk i"^) and the laws of nature (4^^), Including even death (5^^), but over the moral world itself, in the divine prerogative of forgiving sins (2^°). Not only, how- ever, is He represented as thus openly taking the posi- tion of Messiah and assuming the authority and functions of the Messiah (cf. Mt 721,29^ before the people : He is represented as from the first speaking of Himself as the Messiah in the use of His favorite Messianic designation, as frequently as He could be expected to do so in the circumstances in which He was placed and with the purpose which governed His entire course of life (Mt 8-« H Lk 9^^ Mt 9' || Mk 2i» Lk 5^4; Mt 10-^ Mt ii^^W Lk f^', Mt i2« II Mk t"^ Lk 6^; Mt 12^2; 12*0; Lk 6^^; Mt 13*^; before the con- fession of Peter at Mt 16^^ ||).^ When these instances of self-expression are taken in connection with those of reception of the Messianic ascription from others (e. g., Mk I-* 3" 5^ Mt 4^'^ 8^^ I4^^ Lk 4*1 8-^ ^^'\ Mt 9^^ 15^^), it will be seen that the early ministry of Jesus, as represented by the Synoptists, was marked by prac- tically continuous assertion or confession of His Mes- siahshlp.
If, then, John the Baptist doubted In prison whether
He was 'the Coming One' (Mt 11^), or It was only
Divergence through a revelation from heaven that
From Current Peter attained to confess Him with firm
Expectations f^j^^ ' the Christ, the Son of the Living
God' (Mt 16^^'"), this was not because of any lack
of opportunity to learn of His Messiahship, but be-
^ Cf. Dalman, Words, p. 259: "As for the Evangelists themselves, they take the view that Jesus called Himself the ' Son of Man ' at all times and before all company."