This entry was connected with Josus' conscious- ness of His Messianic mission, gradu.illj- develop- ing as His work assumed definite direction and His doctrine definite form ; was conceived after the prophecies of the OT, and planned in order to satisfy the expectations of many who were wait- ing for the coming of the Kingdom of God, ' the consolation of Israel,' ' the redemption of Jeru- salem' (Lk 2='- f). After the feeding of the 5000 ( Jn 6") the multitude recognized Jesusas the prophet that sliould come into the world, and would have seized Him and made Him a king, but He defeated their purpose ; for He could not allow an emotional peasantry, ever ready to flock to the standard of a deliverer, to identify His Kingdom with this world, or His cause with that of a Judas of Galilee. Here He devises the entry on the lines of Jewish prophecy, which, though free from any hostile intention, was equivalent to a declaration that He was the Messiah, and implied that He was more. It was nut directly ur^ed against Him at His trial; I:; it irilicd Pilate with his question, 'Art i' K if tlie Jews?' and, accordingly,
with r - for his sentence. Tills and
the il. !, iiij ' ! His two first and last actions as Messiah. They were followed by the Cross.
We may infer in some measure from the song, the prophecy quoted, and His mode of entry, how far Jesus fulfilled and how far He transcended the Messianic expectations of His day.
1. The Kingdom of our father Darirl.^— The Kingdom of God or of heaven in the sense of the rule or Herrschaft of God, ' the power of God in its present or future manifestation,' the spiritual sway and 'sovereignty of God' (Dal- man. Worth of Jesus, p. 94), not in the sense of Home Rule for the Jews, had always been the text of Jesus' jrablic addresses (ilt 4'"). Sliortly before this the Pharisees liad asked when the Kingdom of God should come (Lk 17=»). And His :iii r V 1 in keeping with His object of purify; '■ M -nnic ideas and exalting the Sles-iii ! His a'_'e. It was the Kingdom
of Hi- 1 nil 1 \h Ji-'jaml of the Father of the righteous (.\lt 13' j that He proclaimed ; it was
the kingdom of their father David of which the people thought. And His question, ' What think j-e of Christ!' (Mt 22*=), shows that He did not consider Davidic origin sutiicient status in itself for the Messiah. 'The kingdom of our father David ' recalls the grand ideal of the theocratic ruler, the representative of J", the ideal son to whose descendants that throne was ensured (2 S 7'°), upon which the prophets of the OT continued to build their hopes — hopes which had become greatlv modified and materialized dtrring the struggle with Antiochus and Rome, and by contact with Grecian thought, and which made the ordinary Jew dream of a deliverer with all the heroic qualities of a Judas Maccabfeus, and the more philosophic think of an earthly empire, cosmopolitan and world - ruling like the Roman. It was the idea in the prophets, chiefly in Dn 7'^- "• ", of a kingdom, holy, super- natural, universal and eternal, that Je.sus sought to recover from the lumber-room of tradition ; and in this He was assisted by the gradual revival of more spiritual Messianic hopes among thought- ful and (levout Jews like Simeon and Anna (cf. also the angelic prediction of Lk V- ' And the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David '). The Gospels give an account of the general Messianic expectations. The Messiah was not to come from Galilee but from Bethlehem (Mt 2=), was king of the Jews (v.-), was to perform miracles (Jn 7^'), to be a prophet (4=^), to appear mysteriously (7^), to be a descendant of David (Mt 9"), and to restore again the kingdom to Israel (Ac 1«).
2. The address 'Son of David.'— The Messiah is first designated Ms AaviS in Ps-Sol 17^ — a title founded on Scripture expressions such as 'son' (Is Q^), 'seed' (Targ. 2 S 7'^), 'branch' (Jer 23* and Zee 6'^, where the Aram, paraphrase for 'branch' is ' AIes.siah'). The Davidic descent of Jesus, never refuted by His opponents, was accepted by St. Paul (Ro P). But Jesus based His authority on .something higher than this (Mt 22*^).
3. The soiiff 'Hosanna . . . highest ' (cf. Ps 118=®- =*, the festal cry amidst which the altar of burnt- oflfering was solemnly compassed on the first si.x days of the Feast of Tabernacles, and on the last day seven times). — ' Hosanna,' wliichinay be a con- traction for HOshi'ah no. (aGxrov S^, LXX), or shorter Hiph. imper. with enclitic, Nric-m, is evidently a .salutation = ' greeting to (cf. Lat. lo trinmphe) the Son of David,' not supplication a-s in Ps. ; cf. Didaehe, x. 6, licrawa rip 6iif AajSiS ('hail'), ixravvk iv ToU vi^iiXTOis (Mt.)=56fo ^v v'PiiTTois (Lk.). In Ps 72" 116« the Heb. >( = dat.) is found after Hipli. of VVy, but the fact' that the branches at the Fea.st of Tabernacles were called 'hosannas' and Mt.'s remarkable omission from Zee 9' of ryiJ (ffwfui', LXX), which would have thrown a new light on this cry, seem to denude the expression of any special significance. See Hosanna.