Fiilfiliiirnf : modern theological studg. Thecentral .sulijirt i> fiilliluient of prophecy. (It has also the iiiu>t p,i>s;i-,..i. Modern study of ' Prophecy and iMiltihiRMit"— title of a book by von Hofmann — brings out a truth which (unless possibly adum- brated in our Lord's words, Mt 5'"') is nowhere formulated in Scripture. Fulfilment is not only like what ])rediction expected, but is also in some Mays different, because tlie prophets' partial wisdom was not adequate to tlie full s])lendour of the ful- filment. Christ, in so far as He diflers from the Messianic portrait of the OT, is not lesser but gi-eater spiritually ; He ncee-tsarily differs. It is true, some elements of the fulfilment are trans- ferred to Christian eschatology. As yet they arc unfinished things. But if the First Advent dif- fered (for the better) from the letter of expectation, we may infer that there are symbolical or meta- phorical elements in the jirophetic pictures of the Second Advent and eschatology. All this, while not formulated in the NT, is learned by believing study of the phenomena of .Scripture, and is our age's proper contribution to the conception of fulfilment. The main lines of expectation fulfilled in Christ arc perhaps three : (1) The hope of the Messianic King (Is 9 is the great passage)— most important, not be- cause of its intrinsic sjiiritual dejith (in that respect it did not stand very hiL'^li), but from what we may call its dogmatic .•^liiirimrs-, mul its emphasis in the NT age. It lent tlir ( liii>ti.in Church its fir-st creed— viz. that '.l.-ii- i- < 'lni-t.' It was fulfilled only through the traiisferoiice of Christ's royalty from temporal to exalted, or from present to future conditions. (2) There is the hope of God's own coming to His people in per.son. Is 40"" — and througliout Is 40-o5. This pointed strongly to
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Christ's Godhead. (3) There is the type or ideal of the Sutt'eriii};' Servant, included in Is 40-55 (also in I's 22 and others), chietly at Is 52'"-53'-. This teach- ing furnished Christian theology with its deepest elements. We can also now explain what amount of truth is conveyed by the idea of ' double fulfil- ments.' When the historical reference of a pro- jihecy is to some lesser or earlier personage than Christ Jesus, yet if that person is important in the history of Cod's iiur|iose, the .triiiic principle may be fulfilled imrtially in liini wliicli is (ultim- ately) more perfectly fiillill.-d in Clnist. Thus we may have a multiple, a repeated fulhlraent of great principles ; yet all pointing on to Christ as the grand or absolute Fuliiller. We do not affirm a great ciyptogram, with designed artful ambiguity. The prophetic human speaker did not mean two
/-_j i„ .L i.-„, , _i i ^ .i j^g meant one event.
capable of meaning many. And something in his spiritual messages corre- sponds to Christ more than to Christ's forerunner. Again, individual or detailed fulfilments have their own subordinate place. Some indeed may be rather a play of pious fancy than a serious argu- ment. The OT is full of plays upon words ; and the NT citations of ' I called my son out of Egypt,' and of ' He shall be called a Nazarene ' (Mt 2"'- ^), are probably of this sort— things that carried more weight in Juda?a long ago than they can possibly carry now. At times the resemblance to the OT is— innocently and unconsciously— filled out. The exact reproduction of Ps 22*, which we find at Mt 27''", is unknown to the earlier narrative of Mark. Where the matter is of some weight (c.ff. probably the birth at Bethlehem), its chief importance is that it emphasizes or advertises the deeper analogies and correspondences in virtue of which Christ ful- fils— and, may we say, transcends— the spirit or the religion of the OT ; alike in Himself and in His gospel.
Literature. — See the Lexicons; also the following two articles, and the Commentaries. On Mt 6", etc., see further the present writer's Christ and the Jewish Law, 1886 ; works on the Sermon on the Mount(B. W. Bacon ; Votaw, in Hastings' 1)1:. Ext. Vol., and literature there <|uoto<l). On Ihe tulfiinu ril prophecy, modem works hv von IIofnia)ni, Kichiu (SIuirlMn! tr.), A. B. Davidson, Woods (7V(i> ;/.)/«• i.f Ism,!), ilc. (in i : eschatological discourse, Sohwartzkopfl's Pnip/irrirs of Jr:,,, CAra! (Eng. tr.). K. MACKINTOSH.
FULNESS (rrX^pw/na).- The Or. word is used in the Gospels in its natural, physical sense in Mt 9"^, Mk 2=' 6« 8=". It has a definite lliclouical mean- ing in Jn l'" [the only place in tlir (;o,|„ls ^^h^■re it i.s tr. 'fulness']. In the ElM^l^•s il is hsimI : of time, to denote the jieriod that lills up .i ciTtain epoch (Eph 1'", (iai 4''; see Fui.NKS.S <>F TIME); of persons, the full number required to make up a dehnite li;;un> ( Uo 1 !'-• -=) ; of measure, to indicate the full capacity, the entire content (1 Co lO-'^-^", Ro 15="), also this may be said to be its meaning in Ho 13'" where love is spoken of as the irX-qpaixa vbiiov. The word has also a definite theological meaning in Col l'" 2", Eph p" 3'" 4'". The central conception of the Avord, wherever used, si^i'iiis to be completeness, the totality of the tliiii'js s|...kcii of, that which binds thein into a sviiini.liic.il whole. Even when it is the latest a.l.lil ion (I, at is indicated as the TrXyjpcjua, the word rrf.Ts liacl; to