It is, then, confessed “that God ceased to speak to the church in prophets, as to their oral teaching and writing, after the days of Malachi; which season of the want of vision, though continuing four hundred years and upwards, is called by Haggai, chap. ii. 6, N08 DY, “unum pusillum,’ ‘a little while,’ in reference to the continu- ance of it from the days of Moses; whereby the Jews may see that they are long since past all grounds of expectation of its restoration, all prophecy having left them double the time that their church en- joyed it, which cannot be called DY) NOS, ‘a little while, in com- parison thereof.” To return.
This was the +éAcas, these the times, wherein God spake in the prophets: which determines one instance more of the comparison, namely, “the fathers,” to whom he spake in them; which were all the faithful of the Judaical church, from the days of giving the law until the ceasing of prophecy in the days of Malachi.
Tois rarpéct.
VER. 1, 2.] EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 1]
In answer to this first instance, on the part of the gospel, the revelation of it is affirmed to be made in these last days, .,. . “Hath spoken in these last days;” the true stating of baiNusaieals which time also will discover who the persons were to 7” whom it was made, “ Hath spoken to us.”
Most expositors suppose that this expression, “ The last days,” is a periphrasis for the times of the gospel. But it doth not appear that they are anywhere so called; nor were they ever known by that name among the Jews, upon whose principles the apostle pro- ceeds. Some seasons, indeed, under the gospel, in reference to some churches, are called “The last days,” 1 Tim. iv. 1, 2 Tim. iii. 1 ; but the whole time of the gospel absolutely is nowhere so termed. It is the last days of the Judaical church and state, which were then drawing to their period and abolition, that are here and elsewhere called “The last days,” or “The latter days,” or “ The last hour,” 2 Pet. iii. 3; 1 Jobn ii. 18; Jude 18. For,—
1. As we before observed, the apostle takes it for granted that the Judaical church-state did yet continue, and proves, that it was drawing to its period, chap. viii. ult., having its present station in the patience and forbearance of God only, without any necessity as unto its worship or preservation in the world. And hereunto doth the reading of the words in some copies, before intimated, give tes- timony, °Eq’ toydrov riiv quspiv robrwy,—<In the end” (or “ ex- tremity”) “of these days;” which, as the event hath proved, can no way relate to the times of the gospel.
2. The personal ministry of the Son, whilst he was upon the earth in the days of his flesh, is here eminently, though not solely in- tended: for as God of old spake in the prophets, so in these last days he spake in the Son; that is, in him personally present with the church, as the prophets also were in their several generations, chap. ii. 3. Now, as to his personal ministry, he was sent to “the lost sheep of the house of Israel,” Matt. xv. 24 (to whom also alone in his own days he sent his apostles, Matt. x. 5, 6); and is therefore said to have been “a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God,” Rom. xv. 8, being in the last place sent to the same vineyard unto which the prophets were sent before, Matt. xxi. 37. The words there used, “Last of all he sent unto them his Son,” are exegetical of these, “ He spake in the Son in the last days.”
3.. This phrase of specch is signally used in the Old Testament to denote the last days of the Judaical church. So by Jacob, Gen. xlix. 1, “I will tell you that which shall befall you D3] NHN2,”— “in the last days:” which words the LXX. render, ’Ex’ eoydrwy ray suepov, the words here used by the apostle; the days pointed unto by Jacob being those wherein the Messiah should come, before Judah was utterly deprived of sceptre and scribe. Again, by Balaam
12 AN EXPOSITION OF THE [CHAP. I.
the same words are used to signify the same time, Num. xxiv. 14, where they are rendered ’Ex’ Zoydérov ray juepav, “In the end of the days,” as many copies read in this place. And in all the prophets this is the peculiar notation of that season, D°D7 NON, Mie. iv. 1, Isa. ii. 2, “In the latter” (or “last”) “days;” and nyytn xn, “the He hajediah,” prefixed, noteth that course of days that was then running, as Deut. xxxi. 29, “ Evil will overtake you 5%30 NNS83,”_“in the end of those days.” And the promise of the conversion of some of the Jews by David their king is annexed to the same season, Hos. iii. 5. From these places is the expression here used taken, de- noting the last times of the Judaical church, the times immediately preceding its rejection and final ruin. Hence Manasseh, lib. iti. de Resurrect. cap. iii, tells us out of Moses Gerundensis, WN DIpd by mewn n> syn oxDT NNN 12;—“ In every place that mentions the ‘latter days,’ the days of the Messiah are to be understood ;” which saying of his is confirmed by Manasseh himself, though attended with a gloss abominable and false, that is purely Judaical. The days of the Messiah and the days of the end of the Judaical church are the same. And these words are expressly also used by R. D. Kimchi, Comment. in Isa. ii, 2; who honestly refers all the words of that prophecy unto the Messiah.