e. Daniel is the only other of the prophets who uses the appellation " the Anointed One" in reference to the Great Deliverer, and he plainly represents him as not only a prince, but also a high-priest, an expiator of guilt " Seventy weeks are determined upon thy peo- ple and upon thy holy city, to punish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliati<m for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and the prophecy, and to onoln/the most holy. Know therefore and understand that from the going forth of the commandment to re- store Jerusalem unto Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks and threescore and two weeks ; the city shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times; and after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself" (Dan. ix, 24-26). See SEVE!fTY Weeks.
(4.) During the period which elapsed ftfmi the dose of the prophetic canon till the birth of Jesus no ai^el- lation of the expected deliverer seems to have been so common as the Messiah or Anointed One, and this is still the name which the unbelieving Jews ordinarily employ when speaking of him whom they still look for to avenge their wrongs and restore them to man than their former honors.
Messiah, Christ, Anointed, is, then, a term equiva- lent to consecrated, sacred, set apart ; and as the rec- ord of divine revelation is called, by way of eminence, The Bible, or book, so is the Great Deliverer called The. Messiah, or Anointed One, much in the same way as he is termed The Man, The Son of Man. See Akohit-
ED.
2. The import of this designation as given to Jesus of Nazareth may now readily be apprehended.
(1.) No attentive reader of the Old Testament can help noticing that in ever}* part of the prophecies there is ever and anon presented to our view an iUustrioos personage destined to appear at some future distant period, and, however varied may be the figurative rep- resentations given of him, no reasonable doubt can be
CHRIST
261
CHRIST
entertained as to the identity of the individiud. ThiiB the Messiah is the same person as "the seed of the woman" who was to ** bruise the head of the serpent" (Gen. iii, 15) ; "the seed of Abraham, in whom idl the nations of the earth were to be blessed" (Gen. xxii, 18) ; the great "prophet to be raised ap like onto Mo- ses," whom all were to be required to hear and obey (Dent, xviii, 15) ; the " priest after the order of Mel- chizedek ;" " the rod out of the stem of Jesse, which should stand for an ensign of the people to which the Gentiles should seek" (Isa. xi, 1, 10) ; the virgin's son, whose name was to be Immanuel (Isa. vii, 14) ; " the Ivanch of Jehovah" (Isa. iv, 2); "the Angel of the Covenant" (MaL iil, 1); "the Lord of the Temple," etc, etc. (ib.). When we say, then, that Jesus is the Christ, we in effect say, '*This is He of whom Moses in the law and the prophets did write" (John i, 45) ; and all that they say of Him is true of Jesus.
The snm of this prophetic testimony respecting him IS that he should belong to the very highest order of being, the incommunicable name Jehovah being repre- sented as rightf^y belonging to him ; that "his go- ings forth have been ftom old, from everlasting" (Mic. V, 2); that his appropriate appellations should be "Wonderful, ConnseUor, the Mighty God" (Isa. ix, 0) ; that he should assume human nature, and become " a child bom" of the Israelitish nation of the tribe of Jndah (Gen. xMx, 10), of the family of David (Isa. xi, 1) ; that the object of his appearance should be the salvation of mankind, both J^s and Gentiles (Isa. xlix, 6) ; that he should be ** despised and rejected" of his coontrymen ; that he should be " cut off, but not ibr hhnself ;" that he should be "wounded for men's transgressions, bruised for their iniquities, and under- go the chastisement of their peace;" that "by his stripes men should be healed;" that "the Lord should lay on him the iniquity" of men; that "exaction should be made and he should answer it ;" that he should " make his soul an offering for sin ;" that after these snfferings he should be "exalted and extolled, and made very high;" that he should "see of the travail of his soul and be satisfied, and by his knowl- edge justify many" (Isa. Iii, pasaim) ; that Jehovah should say to him, " Sit at my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool" (Psa. ex, 1); that he should be brought near to the Ancient of Days, and that to him should be given "dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that aU people, and nations, and lan- guages should serve him — an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away— « kingdom that shall not be destroyed" (Dan. vii, 18, 14). All thU is implied in saying Jesus is the Christ. In the plainer language of the New Testament, " Jesus is the Christ" is equiv- alent to Jesus is ^ God manifest in the flesh" (1 Tim. iii, 16)-^the Son of God, who, in human nature, by his obedience, and suflerings, and death in the room of the guUty, has obtained salvation for them, and all power in heaven and earth for himself, that he may give eter- nal life to all coming to the Father through him.