i. AyrjISTISG OF KINGS.— T\\Q custom of anoint- ing the king, from which his designation as ' mes- siah ' arose, is connected with magical usages of hoary antiquity, based on the conception that the smearing or pouring of the unguent on the body endows the human subject with certain qualities. Tluis the Arabs of Eastern Africa believe tiiat an unguent of lion's fat inspires a man witii boldness, and makes the wild beasts Hee in terror from him. Otlier illustrations maybe found in Frazer's Golden Bough-, ii. 364 tl". The Tell el-Amarna inscriptions show that this custom of anointing the king Avith oil prevailed in Western Asia at least as far back as B.C. 1450. The passage to which we refer occurs in a letter from a certain Kamman - nirftri of Xuhassi in Northern Syria addressed to the king of Egypt, in which it is stated that a former king of Eg^ypt [Thothmes III.] had 'poured oil on the head ' of Ramman-nirari's giandfather and estab- lished him as king of Xuhassi. J Frazer's great work has rendered us familiar with the super- natural endowments of a king who was regarded as a »7»«5f'-deity.t That ancient Israel also be- lieved that the royal dic;-nity involved supernatural Divine powers, and that the oil poured upon the king conveyed these powers (like the ' layin^; on of hands'), can hardly admit of doubt. The oil, like the sprinkled blood in a covenant-rite:;: (Ex 24'^"^-), possessed a magical virtue.f
Like tlie priest, the king was regarded as a Divine intermediary, and assumed the supreme ritual functions of a priest in his own person. Among the ancient Semites, especially the Baby- lonians and AssjTians, the earthly ruler or king was considered to 1>e the supreme God's representa- tive or viceroy. Sometimes he declares himself the ' son of tlie deity ' {e.g. in the opening line of Ashurbanipals cylinder-inscription he calls him-
* Wiiiekler, Thontafeln von Tell el-Amarna (vol v. in Schrader's KIB), Letter 37 (p. 98).
t Golden Bou{tk -, i. 137-1.=)6 ; cf. also his Lectures on the Early nhtory of the kingship (19<i5).
J According to Westermarck, the blood shed possesses a magical power of conveying- a curse (' Magic and Social Re- lations' in Sociological Papers, vol. ii. p. 160). In the case of a covenant the curse falls if the covenant be not fulfilled.
5 Thus shields were smeared with oil to render them or their owners immune (2 S l-i, cf. Is 215. Saul's shield was un- anointed, and so its owner perished).
self binutu Ashur u Bclit, ' offspring of Ashur and Beltis ' ; cf. tlie language of Ps 2'), or ' favourite of the deity ' (cf. the name of the Bab. monarch Xaram-Sin, ' beloved of Sin.' Saigon calls himself in the opening of his Nimrud insc. ' the favourite of Anu and Bel '). Further parallels in the case of Xelmchadrezzar may be found in Schrader, COT ii. 1U5 tf. See also Tiele, Bab. - Assijr. Gesch. 491 ff. Tiglath-pileser i. (B.C. 1100) calls himself iiSakku (pa-TE-si) of the God Ashur (Prism-Insc. col. vii. 62. 63), i.e. Ashurs plenipotentiary. That in this sacred function priestly office was involved maj' be readily inferred. Thus Ashurbanipal (like Sargon) calls himself not only the &aknu or vice- gerent of Bel, but also the Sangu or priest of Ashur. Similarly the Homeric kings otter sacri- tice on behalf of the people. As Robertson Snuth remarks ('Priest' in EBr^), the king in both Greece and Rome was the acting head of the State - religion. So also in ancient pre - exilian Lsrael, David and Solomon ottered s«.critices (2 S 6^"^-, 1 K 8*^) in accordance with the tradition of the age.
ii. USIQUE POSITIOS OF DaVID IS HEBREW THOUGHT. — Among the Hebrew anointed kings or messiahs, David came in course of time to have a special significance. His importance was en- hanced by the history of the three centuries that followed his reign. No Israelite or Jew living in the year B.C. 730 could have failed to note the striking contrast between the unbroken continuity of nionarchs of the seed of David sitting on the throne of Jenisalem and the succession of brief djTiasties and usurping kings who followed one another on the throne of Samaria. The swiftly passing scries of short reigns terminated by vio- lence which filled the space of 15 j"ears in Northern Israel from the close of the djTiasty of Jehu (which lasted nearly a century) to the accession of Hoshea, As.syria"s nominee, to the dismembered kingdom, deeplj' impressed the prophet of Ephraim, wlio exclaims : —
' They have appointed kings, but not from me {i.e. Jahweh) ; Have made princes, but I knew them not ' (Hos 8*).
It is not surprising, amid the rapid changes of rulers and the disasters Avrought bj- foreign in- vasion, that Hosea should have prophesied the dis- cipline of exile for his faithless countrymen, and as its final issue that they should return and seek Jahweh their God and 'David their king.'* For amid all the vicissitudes of the last three centuries tlie seed of David had survived every peril. The ' sure mercies of David ' to which the Jews still clung, though with feeble ho])e. in the dark days of exile (Is 55^), began in the age of Isaiah to take root in the national imagination. Though Judah was destined to sutter terrible chastisements, yet as a result of the disciplinary trial ' a remnant would return' (i.e. be converted) to Jahweh, and Jeru- salem would be preserved from the onslaughts of the Assyrian foe. The Immanuel prophecy, which contained the assurance of God's presence among His people, delivered to the doubting Ahaz and his unlielieving court during the dark days of B.C. 735, became the germ of a great .series of Mes- sianic passages which are found in Is 9'"* [Eng. -""], which was probably composed .soon after B.C. 701, in IP-^ and, lastly,"" in 32i-^. In the first the Messiah is portrayed as a military conquering hero, ' break- ing in pieces the o])pressor"s mace' ; in the second, the sounds of discord cease, and He, sprung from Je.s.se's stock, is the iiiler of justice and peace in God's ' holy mountain ' of Zion, where even the