(ii.) The continuity of revelation and redemp- tion.—The doctrine of a Messiah who had suffered, and who by definite acts of God had been raised from the dead and exalted to supreme sovereignty, was new. But in various ways St. Peter insists that these facts of redemption were the develop- ment of the whole history of the people. He who thus worked out His purpose is ‘the God of our fathers’ (3'°5% ; cf. Shemoneh Esreh 1,* ‘ Blessed art Thou, Jehovah, our God and the God of our fathers . . . our shield and the shield of our fathers’). This consummation of the Divine action was the burden of all prophecy (31% * 10%; cf. 4 Es 94, and see Weber, Die Lehren des Talmud p. 355). Those to whom St. Peter spoke were ‘the sons of the prophets and of the covenant’ (3%; cf. υἱοὶ τῆς διαθήκης, Ps-Sol 17” ; ‘a son of the law,’ Apoc. Bar 46‘; and see Wetstein in loc.). It should be noticed that Lk, who records St. Peter’s applica- tions of propiieey, tells us the source whence he learned them (Lk 24“; ef. v.”).
(111.) The doctrine of the Messiah.—‘ Jesus the Nazarene’ was declared by God to be Messiah (2%). The person of the Lord is here presented
* The Benedictions (in the original) are given in the Palestinian and Babylonian recensions in man, Die Worte Jesu Ὁ. 290 ff. An English rendering will be found in Schirer, HJP u. ii. p. 83 ff. ; see also Westcott, Hebrews p. 206 ff.
PETER (SIMON)
from the point of view of His Messiahship.
(a) Messianic titles.—(a) The Messiah (ὁ χριστός, Χριστός). The anointing is specially referred to in 477 10"; ef. Is 61) (Lk 48), Ps 44 (45). With 10%
(ἔχρισεν αὐτὸν ὁ θεὸς rv. ἁγίῳ καὶ δυνάμει) cf. Ps-Sol 17* (ὁ θεὸς κατηργάσατο αὐτὸν δυνατὸν ἐν πνεύματι ἁγίῳ). (8) The Servant (παῖε), 31:8: 35, comp. (the prayer of the apostles) 4%. The phrase is derived trom a series of passages in Deutero-Isaiah. Its current Messianic application is certified by Apoe. Bar 70* ‘My servant Messiah.’ On the Rabbinic interpre- tation of the passages in Isaiah see Edersheim, Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah ii. p. 726. When, through the influence of the ΠΟ ΙΚΌΥΟΣΕΥ with the Ebionites, the meaning of Christologica
hrases was more keenly analyzed by the Church, it became customary, when the ancient phrase was used of our Lord, to indicate, e.g., ἐν the addition of ἠγαπημένος, that παῖς was to be taken as an equivalent of υἱός (e.g. Clem. "59 (thrice), Hp. ad Diog. 8, Mart. Polyc. "14, Acta Thecle *24; οἵ, Wis 2)8- 18), The phrase, however, is used in its original meaning in Did. *ix. 2 (εὐχαριστοῦμεν. . . ὑπὲρ τῆς ἁγίας ἀμπέλου Aaveld τοῦ παιδός σου, ἧς ἐγνωρίσας ἡμῖν διὰ Ἰησοῦ τοῦ παιδός σου), *ix. 3, *x. 2. The simple use, therefore, of this pre- Christian Messianic title, which in sub-apostolic times was avoided or guarded, is very primitive. It should further be noticed that most of the earliest Christian passages where the phrase occurs (marked above with *) are liturgical, and that it twice occurs in the apostles’ prayer (Ac 4). Hence it seems probable that it was characteristic of Jewish prayers, that thence it passed into the primitive vocabulary of the Church, and that, having litur-
ical associations, it long maintained its place in
hristian prayers, though now it received a higher doctrinal connotation. Comp. Lock in Expositor, series iv. vol. iv. p. 178ff.; Dalman, Die Worte Jesu Ὁ. 226 ff. (vy) ὁ ἅγιος καὶ δίκαιος, 31} ; οἵ, 457. 80 752 224 Righteousness and holiness are the char- acteristics of Messiah’s time; see e.g. Ps-Sol 17%, Enoch 38? ‘when the righteous One shall appear before the eyes of the elect righteous,’ where, as in 538 (cf. 46°), ‘the righteous One’ is a designation of the Messiah (cf. Weber, Die Lehren d. T. Ρ 344). For the holiness of Messiah οἵ. e.g. Ps-Sol 17%. (δ) There is a group of expression which may be called archaic, being derived from the record of the earliest period of Tsrael’s history. Such expres- sions are ἀναστήσας (3°; ef. v.72) and ἤγειρεν (539) in the sense of ‘God raised up, brought upon the scene,’ ἀρχηγὸν καὶ σωτῆρα ὕψωσεν (5°; cf. 1353), comp. 6.5. Jg 35:15 But Pease eet of this kind was not simply archaic. It had been adopted into the devotional and liturgical language of the Messianic hope; ef. e.g. Ps-Sol 17%:*, Apoc. Bar 397 408, Shemoneh Esreh 11.
(δ) The issues of Messiah’s advent.—The horizon is bounded by the limits of the national hope. ‘The promise’ (2%, οἵ. Ps-Sol 12°) is primarily for Israel. There are in the speeches at Jeru- salem but three hints of a wider blessing — ἐπὶ πᾶσαν σάρκα (27, from J] 238), καὶ πᾶσι τοῖς els μακρὰν ὅσους ἂν προσκαλέσηται Κύριος ὁ θεὸς ἡμῶν (939, from Ts 5715, J] 953), ὑμῖν πρῶτον (335, cf. Mk 777). But how through the agency of a restored Israel this ex- tension of Messianic redemption is to be brought about is in no way dative Thus the forecast, while it insists upon, does not go beyond, the more generous Jewish expectation as to the nations, such as finds expression in, e.g., Ps-Sol 17% (ἐλεήσει πάντα τὰ ἔθνη ἐνώπιον αὐτοῦ ἐν φόβῳ). It will be