The fullest references to a coming prophet are found in Deutero Isaiah ; and here He is clearly identified with ' the Servant of the Lord.' There enters largely into the prophet's conception of this great Personality the idea of His being an anointed revealer of truth. Jehovah makes ' his mouth like a sharp .SM'ord ' (49'^), and ' puts his spirit upon him, so that he shall bring forth judgment to the Gen- tiles ' (42\ also 59^1 6P). But, clear as is our identi- fication of ' the Servant ' with Jesus, we yet know that this union of ' the Suttering One ' with the Messianic King has ever been the great stumbling- block to Israel. The truth api^ears to be : the prophets of Israel, influenced by the national cir- cumstances and needs of their own day, predicted under the Spirit's influence, now a coming king, now a prophet, now a priestly sufterer with pro- phetic functions ; and these parallel lines of yearn- ing thought found together their satisfaction in the Person of Jesus.
The Book of Malachi closes with a prediction of the return of Elijah (4^), and Israel's prophetic ex- pectations centred thenceforth chiefly in him.
4. With the silence of prophecy, there came to Israel a deep
yearning for the li\'ing voice of Jehovah. This was a character- istic of the Maccabaean age, when the anticipation of a coming prophet overshadows that of the Messiah (1 Mac 4''8 14-11 927, also Sir 481").
The same longing is found in Ps 749 ■ We see not our signs, there is no more any prophet, neither is there among us any that knoweth how long.' This Psalm is therefore thought to belong to the Maccabaean period ; on the other hand, similar complaints are found in the writings of the Exile (La 29, Ezk 726).
The Apocalyptic literature is mostly silent on the point. But in the Book of Enoch (Simil. 453-6) the Son of Man is portrayed as revealing 'all the treasures of that which is hidden, and there are seen an inexhaustible fountain of righteousness, and round about nian,\' fountains of wisdom.' These promises of fuller revelation presumably imply a personal agent for its dissemina- tion. The prophetic gift is advanced in the Test, of the XII. Patriarchs (Levi viii. 15) as an implicit claim of John Hyrcanus to the Messiahship ; and he alone was said by the Jews to have held the threefold office (Jos. BJ i. 11. 8).
5. If the abeyance of prophecy added to the gloom
of Israel during the interval between the time that the last OT prophet delivered his message and the beginning of the Clnistian era, the coining uf Christ was heralded by an outburst of the prophetic gift. It is recorded as hrst appearing in tlie priestly iiouse of Zacharias (Lk l'^^- ''^) ; it was granted to tlie Virgin, to Simeon, and to Anna (Lk 2-^- '^), and readied its most notable height in tlie person of John the Baptist. The nation, galled by a foreign yoke, and meditating on the predictions found in their sacred books, and, above all, picturing the return of Elijah as a herald of emancipation, 'mused in their heart' whether the Baptist were iiimself the Messiah, or Elijah, or the Prophet, or one of the old jjrophets returned (Lk 3^'', Jn l"-^"*''-). But John, realizing himself to be only a forerunner, and wisliing to turn the thoughts of the people from himself to Jesus, refused to be anything save an impersonal voice crying in tlie wilderness. Fit- tingly thus was the world's supreme Prophet ushered upon His prophetic career by a volume of reawakened prophecy.
6. Whatever difficulty His contemporaries felt in acknowledging His Messiahship, they had none in recognizing Him as a prophet. Both at the com- mencement and at the close of His career, this was the popular view of His ministry. As soon as He be- came known, the general judgment was pronounced that ' a great prophet had arisen, and that God had visited his people ' (Lk 7") ; and when at the close of His ministry He allowed the pojjulace openly to express their feelings regarding Him, they, in answer to the question ' Who is this ? ' replied, ' This is Jesus, the prophet of Nazareth' (Mt 21"; also Mk &\ Mt 2\*\ Lk 24i«, Jn 4i» G^'* 7^» 9"). Indeed, only those who were biassed by ecclesiastical bigotry could have concluded otherwise, for His miracles of mercy were external credentials re- calling the powers of Moses and Elijah ; and the authoritative tone of His teaching showed that He claimed for Himself at least the jjosition of a God- sent teacher.
7. But not only was the title generally given to Him ; He also claimed it for Himself. Thus He opened His ministry in His native village by reading in the synagogue the words of Isaiah (61^), ' The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach good tidings to the poor,' and commenced His discourse upon them by saying, ' To-day hath this scripture been fulfilled in your ears' (Lk 4^^-^'). Later in His ministry, when His death was imminent, He openly placed Himself in line with the ancient prophets of Isi'ael, foretelling that, similarly to them. He could not perish out of Jerusalem (Mt 23-'*ff-, Lk IS^S) ; and when He used, in the parable of the Vineyard, the familiar OT figure of the Kingdom of God, He deliberately made Himself the last of the long line of God's martyr messengers to His people ; and told the Jews that, notwitiistanding the fact that they had ' shamefully handled ' His predecessors the prophets ; yet He had been sent to them by God with a final call to repentance.