Two comings of the Messiah, first in humiliation, then in glory, were now distinguished, and this distinction became a characteristic article of the Christian faith ; for the withdrawal from the earth of one who had not in any way discharged the office of Messiah, though destined to do so hereafter, according to the Jewish notion referred to above, can hardly be regarded as equivalent. Further, even from the very necessities of the case, the kingship of the Messiah could no longer be con- ceived as primarily an earthly one. He had been exalted to a throne in heaven at God’s right hand, whence He was expected to returnin glory. Some, and for a time many, Christians supposed that He would then reign upon earth for a certain period. But to thoughtful believers this must always have seemed a very subordinate part of His discharge of His kingly office. It scarcely appears in the NT (Rev 20° is the only passage that can be regarded as a distinct indication of it). The predominant thought was that of a heavenly king. Moreover, He was to be the Judge in the final universal judg- ment (Ac 104 17%: 31, Ro 218 2 Co 51, Mt 25%),
Meanwhile He exercises a heavenly priesthood. This aspect, too, of Messiahship was first clearly brought out in Christian teaching. That this was so, appears from the fact that Christian believers did not at once perceive it. The title of ‘ priest’ is in NT given to Jesus Christ only in Ep. to Heb. ; and His right to it is founded primarily upon a passage in which a psalmist had once recognized the priestly character belonging to Israel’s king (Ps 1104, He 5° 7. 84). Lastly, a meaning so much loftier than before was given to His relationship to God, that the title ‘the Son of God’ lost, or almost so, the associations with specifically Messianic ideas which it once might have had.
To some the view of OT prophecy suggested in this article may be disappointing. For the purpose of the argument from prophecy in ein of the Christian faith as it has been ordinarily used, the πέπον miraculous character of the prophecies should be as plain as possible. Predictions are
METE, METEYARD
ME-ZAHAB 357
therefore demanded, the reference of which is ξπλτμα θεὰ by their circumstantial accuracy, and
y their having been more or less clearly intelli- gible before the time of fulfilment came. Modern inquiry has rendered it doubtful how far the pre- dictions satisfied these requirements. But, on the other hand, the history which we have been tracing is full of the signs of Divine Providence. The whole religious history of Israel down to the time of Him whom Christians believe in as the Christ, and in a special manner the teaching of the pro-
hets, formed a most remarkable preparation for
is coming. It remains true as ever, and criticism and historical investigation only confirm it, that the Scriptures were in reality full of Him, and that, in proportion as men had entered into their spirit, they must have been able to receive Him (Jn 5% 89), It is still legitimate as ever to regard types and ideals which were first fully realized in Him as divinely intended to foreshadow Him. And if the method in which Israel was trained in its great hope, even while in many respects unique, was more analogous to that in which truth has ordin- arily been unfolded to mankind, permitting a larger amount of illusion and error on their part than has sometimes been supposed, it may for this very reason be the more instructive.
Lrreratore.—Drummond, The Jewish Messiah: A critical history of the Messianic idea among the Jews from the rise of the Maccabees to the closing of the Talmud ; Castelli, 1ὲ Messia secondo gli Ebrei; Schirer, GJ V 3 ii. 496 ff. [HJ P ταὶ. ii. 126 ff.]; Dalman, Der leidende und der sterbende Messias, and Die Worte Jesu; Driver and Neubauer, The Jewish Interpreters of Isaiah liii.; Stanton, The Jewish and the Christian Messiah.
For the literature connected with the Jewish docunients re- ferred to, see the arts. upon those works.
V. H. STANTON.
METE, METEYARD.—To ‘mete’ (from Anglo- Sax. metan, and radically connected with Gr. μέτρον, Lat. metiri, Eng. ‘measure’; and even with Gr. yuédew to rule, Lat. modus, measure, moderation, Eng. ‘mode,’ ‘modest,’ ete.) is to measure, Thus Ex 16% ‘And when they did mete it with an omer, he that gathered much had nothing over, and he that gathered little had no lack’; Mt 7? ‘With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.’ Cf. Knox, Hist. 97, ‘But bee yee assured, my Lord, with such measure as ye mete to others, with the same measure it shall be met to you againe.’ Tind. ases the word in Dt 217 ‘Then let thine elders and thi judges come forth and meet unto the cities that are rounde aboute the slayne,’ and Coy. in Ru 3” ‘ And he meet her sixe measures of barlye.’ Sir John Cheke, in his determination to use Anglo- Saxon at all hazards, turns Tindale’s ‘ cubite’ in Mt 6” into ‘half yard mete.’ Chapman uses the verb in Jliads, iii. 327—
‘Then Hector, Priam’s martial son, stepp’d forth, and met
the ground.’
Meteyard is used by Tindale in Lv 19” as the tr. of πῆρ, a measure, and it is retained in AV and