htof
and the denunciation the yearning lament over JeiusaliMu (Mt 23^"''') — Jerusalem in which Pliarisaism and scribisra were specially entrenched. The key to this perfect life or kindness and love is found in His own words — ' The Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many' (Mk lO''''). The declaration of vivid and loving remembrance is that He ' went about doing good, and healing all that were oppre.ssed of the devil ' (Ac 10»»). J. S. CLEMENS.
KING. — Tlie primitive Christian Church regarded herself as the vassal of Jesus Christ, her exalted Lord and King, under whose regal sway she liad been brought by Divine grace (Col 1'^). The current belief was that Jesus Iiad been installed in His royal ottiee by the Kesurrei'linn ; in that (ivent God had made Him bolh Lnid aii.l Clirisl ( \(- 2="), and in it liad been fullllh'd the ]irii|ilre( y n^^anling the Messianic King, 'Thou art my -'.ii : tliis day have I begotten thee' (Ps 2', if. A.- I:; i, as also another prophetic utterance, 'Sit Ih.ai ai iii\ rii;ht hand' (Ps 110'; cf. Ac 2^, I!ev :; '). 'riiiA sove- reignty is indeed temporary ; it « ill i .,inr |.. an end with the final overthrow of the enemies of God : ' Then shall he deliver up the kingdom to God, even the Father' (1 Co lo-^-^"*). It was the con- viction of the primitive community that the idea of a Messianic kinudom upon earth — whether eternal (Lk F^) or of 'limited duration (Rev 20^f-)— as it gleams tlirouj;li tlie Jewisli Apocalyptic and in the earlier Messianic liope, had at last been
realized in the Kiirj.h >f ( hrist, i.e., the Church
as subject to lier cxali.d K'inu.
Now the quoiioii which we seek to answer in the present artiil^ j, i In- : — /'/'/ .7^r-?»s- Him<:rlf iv His lifetime put J^',. r,,,,/ ,, r/„n„ /„/„■//,.■ ,Vr.,,;„i,ir King? Here wc li^jhl u|nai a innlijcni wliicli is vigorously canva-s. 'I I alia.ni;- llicohiuialls, pailicu- larly at the presiajl day. \\ hile tliere are scholars of high repute, Mali .a- \\ .llhausen and Wrede,* who deny that ,1. -n- thon-ht of Himself as the Messiah at all, there arc utiu'rs who are convinced that He was in possession of some kind of ' Mes- sianic consciousness'; and among the latter the controversy turns upon the peculiar significance and the specific colouring of the implied claims and expectations. It is impossilile in tlie space at our disposal to discuss tlie problem in all its bear- ings ; for the details reference must be made to other works of the present writer, t The task of
* Wellhausen, IJG^, Comm. zxt den Sifnopt. Evangelien, Mnleit. in die drei ersten Evangelien (lOCiS), 89 ff. ; Wrede, Das Messia»geheimniss in der EvangeMcn, 1901.
t Die Schriften dea NT, i. i. 136 f., 198 ff., 476 fl.
determining the sense in which Jesus assumed the title of King is all that meanwhile concerns us.
'I'hi' prophecy regarding Jesus uttered by the anucl (diliriel :' 'The Lord shall give unto him the throne of his father David, and he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever, and of his kingdom there shall be no end' (Lk I'-'-), was not brought to fulfilment in the lifetime of Jesus. But the writer of the Gospel of the Infancy in Lk. would hardly have recorded the prediction, had he not entertained the hope that its fulfilment was but a matter of time. It is beyond question that the earliest Jewish - Christian communities believed that Jesus wouhl come again in kingly glory, as is acknowledged by the repentant thief upon the cross (Lk 23^-, reading orav IXffji^ ei> ttj (JauiXeiq. <rov 'ia(r,\dai. aor)'. This belief the early
as prefiaal appeaas churches David (K
|i<iii the descent of Jesus from d ill the endeavours which were
mad.- I iMiah' ii by the construction of
gcn.-al I (Ml I''-'", Lk S-^-ss). These
tabic- V, . n i! i.ii inicicd for merely academic or tlcol., I, I |Mi|io-c,; they were designed to .suppoil lie r.iiiiriiiion with which the Jewish Cllri^liall- (oiifronlcd I heir unbelieving com- Iiatriot-, \i.'. th.it .l( -U-. was the King of Israel. It is true, indeed, thai ill the primitive tradition of the life of Jesus, His Kingship is not explicitly asserted. The acclamations of the multitude on the occasion of the Triumphal Entry into Jerusa- lem, 'Hosanna to tlie son of David' (Mt 21''), 'Blessed is lie kiii-dom ihat coinetli, the king- dom of our jailici |ia\id' (.\Ik 11"'), cannot have been more than a hold ani i. ipation of the future. The crown of ihoms il.^. 'i was an act of derision, to the trill' siLinihc.MKc oi which the soldiers were blind ; wliilc llic iiiM i i|,i ion on the cross (15=«) was a prediction whiih I'ilalc, in opposition to the wishes of the ,1. w and ia ignorance of what he was doing (.In 1.' constrained to set forth
in all the '.mil I In: of the world. In point
of fact the ]iiiijnii\n 1 1 ami ion makes it perfectly clear that Jesus dejirecatcd and even disclaimed the ascription of royalty, or at all events that He thought of the dignity as something to become His only in the future.