Weiss, Life of Christ ; Edershcim, Life and Times.
E. C. Dargan. ELEAZAR.— An ancestor of Jesus, Mt 1"*.
ELECT, ELECTION (eKX4yecreai, reXexTcls, eK\oyr,). — Tliiiui;li «c li,i\e no reference in the Gospels to any ci.iisciims ellort on the part of the writers to ;;itis]> the si^'iiiUcaiice of the Divine action in choos- in.t; and icjcrtiii.u tlie liuiuan (dijects of His favour and the iii^tiuineiits iif His -Hill, we have .sufficiently expliiit slateiiicnts, incidentally valuable, to show (dearly that they inherited tlie ()T conceptions on this question. The self-identification of Jesus with the ideal Servant of Jehovah (Lk 4'8'- = Is 61"-) at the outset of His public ministry at once widens the scope of the revelation of His Father's elective activity, and emphasizes the profound depths in human-Divine relationships to which this activity in the freedom of its manifestation has penetrated. Once apain, in what may without exaggeration be called Hie uuist critical moment of Jesu.s' public life, when sulleriug and death (Lk 9»') assumed hu;,'e iiru|iort inns in His sight, the revelation of His posit H. II a- the elect (.f G.hI {6 Ms fi.01' 6 iKXeXeyii^vos, v.") noi only .i~-urcd His fearful disciples, but strcicjl liciH ,1 lliiii-elf in His often-expressed con- viction that the consciimsuess of His eternal Son- .'ihip was well founded.
of 0 ij-XTHTnV (Mk 97 ■nuinc one, not only F, bnt nNo hecause,
-' "xered to be pro- 1 end at which they
ily ^l:ives the burden heavenly visitants :
ELECT, ELECTION
ELECT, ELECTION
511
he also implies that Jesus was there informed in detail of the character of the death which He was about to suffer (,irwi>.iUvt •iro, . . . iUyat -ri,. JJoJov airoC, &■""■).
How universally the title nf ' the Elect ' or ' the Elect One ' had become identitied witli that of ' the Christ ' is best seen in the contemptuous irony of the scoffing rulers who mocked on the day of the Crucifixion The demonstrative oBtos and the titu lar 6 cKXekTos combine to mark the emphasis w ith which they i ejected the Messianic claims of Jesus and not only the < laims, but the foundation upon which those claims ipsted (cf Lk 23'^) It is ip markable that M Lukt seems to be the onlj Is 1 writer who has adopted the us( of the woul as i designation, stiictly speakini,, of the Messiah (cf however, the variant leadin^' o e^Ne/iTos m tin Baptist's testimony to Jesus Jn 1« WH) This statement is not attected bj St Matthew s quota tion from Isaiah (42'), who may be legarded as the originatoi of the title Heiev\e have the idea in prominence, but by ■N\ay of interpretation lather than by duect statement (tf his use of the verb ■QfiiTiaa, Mt 1218, instead of the merely descriptive 6 eK\(K6! fiov of Is 42').
The only other wxiting of a late date in which ' the Elect One appears as a Messianic title is the Book of Eimcli, i i n . . ui to have been the chief means of popularizing i(s 11 I ! '
would be interesting to trace the influence of 1 1 1 1 1 as well as in other respects, upon the Gospels rit 1 1 - . ' many names by which the coming Messiah is <i.-i_:i .i -i i h. rr, the favourite one seems to be ' the Elect One ' (see 40'> 45-1 4:)-. * 613. 6 626. 9 654 615. ». 10 621), and on a couple of occasions this is joined with another word or words which are equivalent to a characterization of the conditions upon which His election to the Messiahship restij (' the righteous and elect one,' 531 ; * the elect one of righteousness and faith,' 39ii [see The Book of Enoch, R. H. Charles' ed. pp. 106-186]). A somewhat fantastic repre- sentation of the method by which the Divine election of Jesus was consummated occurs in Hernias, where the servant elected by his lord (UXi|«fi.!vo5 icixiy t..« T,o~ro., x.T.)..), after having approved himself as a zealous guardian of his master's interests.
is chosen by the latter (utm mO -rtUf^ccro; ky,m uXet-rc Kosmtioy)
to occupy the position of ' great power and lordship.' Whatever we may think of the orthodo.xy of this teaching, it is at least interesting as showing how completely the habits of thought in the early Church were dominated by this aspect of the Incarna- tion, and how men strove by the aid of reason to harmonize the ideas underlying the titles of 'Servant 'and 'Son '(see Sim. 5, i.-vi.).
As the Christological ideas of the early Church begin to emerge and to crystallize, we find this one holding a firm place, while at the same time another equally emphatic conception begins to assert itself. The election, by God, of Jesus »:is lii'ld to lie :<
means to a wider end — the est:ilili-li ni ni ,i cliorn
body which should exhibit on cntli llic ;ji:iri'~ .iml virtues of Him in and through \\li.>iii tlu-ir I'lrction was accomplished (cf. 1 P 2'"- '■"■, where tlie writer's insistence on the profound oneness of Jesus and His people is fundamentally and essentially Pauline, though he elaborates no argument to |iifive what he states ; cf. f|eX^t'"'o W^s f'' «' "-- ' I'li I ''
•The fundamental conception of .!■- 11 ' i\ thing