The note thus struck is sustained throughout the Gospel narrative. This Messiah who Jesus is. Is cer- tainly the Son of David, the King of Israel. But the Kingdom He has come to found is the kingdom of righteousness, not merely a righteous kingdom: It Is the Kingdom of Heaven, not a kingdom of the earth : the Kingdom of God, not of men. We may see Its nature in Daniel's splendid dream of the heaven-founded kingdom of the saints of the Most High (Dan -713,22-27^ . the method of Its establishment In Isaiah's vision of the Righteous Serv^ant of Jehovah, who bears the sins of His people and preaches the good tidings to the meek (esp. Is 53 and 61) ; the person of its founder in that most glorious of all prophecies of the Old Covenant: " Lo, your God will come; He will come and save you!" (Is 35^); "the voice of one that crieth, Pre- pare ye in the wilderness the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God; the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together, . . . Behold your God! Be- hold the Lord God will come . . . He shall feed His flock like a shepherd. He shall gather the lambs In His arms, and carry them in His bosom, and gently lead those that give suck" (Is 40^^®*^)." To put it in one sentence, the Messianic ideal which Is presented In the Synoptics as fulfilled In Jesus finds
^1 Cf. Reinhold Ziemssen, Christus der Herr, 1867, p. 28: "They proclaim with one voice that the Lord (Jehovah) Himself will come, that He Himself will protect His flock, that He Himself will be King in Zion, that He Himself will be found of Israel."
The Jesus of the Synoptists 133
Its Old Testament basis not merely In the prediction of a Davldic King who reigns forever over the people of God, but, Interpreting that kingdom In the terms of Daniel's dream of a heaven-founded kingdom of saints, Interweaves with It the portraitures of the Serv- ant of Jehovah of Isaiah and the fundamental promise that Jehovah shall visit His people for redemption.
The special vehicles of the exalted view of the per- son of the Messiah embodied In this Ideal are, so far , . as the Messianic designations are con-
Designations cerned, first of all that of the ' Son of Man,' then that of 'the Son of God,' or rather, In the more pregnant simple form, of ' the Son ' ; and outside of the Messianic titles proper, the high title of ' Lord.' The history of these designations is somewhat obscure, and, although they all have their roots set In the Old Testament, Is Illustrated by only scanty usage of them in Jewish literature prior to our Lord's time. ' The Son of Man ' occurs only In the Similitudes of Enoch and In 4 Ezra '}^ the exact title ' Son of God ' does not seem to occur at all," though
12 Cf. Dalman, Words, p. 242: "From the first Christian century- there are only two Jewish writings known which deal with Dan y^^, the Similitudes of the Book of Enoch and the Second [al. Fourth] Book of Esdras. The two agree In regarding the one like to a Son of Man as an individual person. And as they combine Dan 7 with Messianic prophecies from the O. T. they clearly show that they regard this indi- vidual as the Messiah." Cf. p. 248.
12 Cf. Stanton, The Jezuish and Christian Messiah, p. 147, and esp. 288 ; and Dalman, Words, 269-71 : also Shailer Mathews, The Mes- sianic Hope in the N. T., 1905, p. 46 and note 4. Dr. Sanday on Rom I* writes as follows: "'Son of God,' like 'Son of Man,' was a recognized title of the Messiah (cf. Enoch 1052 ; 4 Ezra 728,29 jj32,37,52 14^, in all which places the Almighty speaks of the Messiah as ' My Son,' though the exact phrase 'Son of God' does not occur). It is remarkable that in the Gospels we very rarely find it used by our
134 The Designations of Our Lord
in an Interpolated fragment of the Book of Enoch y^ a -Kc/v.^ (105") ^"^ if^ 4 Ezra the Messiah is represented as l-Vp^'i ''- spoken of by God as ' My Son.'^* It is noteworthy that yJfS^"^'^.^ in this rare Jewish usage both titles appear in connec- fT^ ^ ■<"**^'' tion with a transcendental doctrine of the Messiah,^' i^ i-f-^^' and it may be that it is the unwontedness of a transcen- dental doctrine of the Messiah in Judaism which ac- counts for the little use made in Jewish speculation of them, because these titles were felt to be implicative of more than human qualities. Their emergence Into more frequent use in the Gospels would in that case be connected with the emphasis laid, according to their
Lord Himself, though in the face of Mt 27*^, Jno 10^®, cf. Mt 21^^ et at., it cannot be said that He did not use it. It is more often used to describe the impression made upon others (e.g. the demonized, Mk "i^^ 5^ ll> the centurion, Mk 1$^^ ||), and it is implied by the words of the tempter (Mt 4^-^ ||), and the voice from heaven (Mk i^^ 9^||)- The crowning instance is the confession of St. Peter . . . Mt 16^^."
1* Cf. Dalman, JFord's, 269-70; Charles, Enoch, 301.