Messer, Asa, D.D., LL.D., a noted American edu- cator and Baptist minister, was born in Methuen,Mass., in 17G9. He studied at Brown University, where he graduated in 1790. The next year he became a tutor in that institution ; a professor of languages in 179G, of mathematics and natural philosophy in 1799, and president in 1802, which latter position he held until I.s2t5. Having been licensed in 1792, and ordained in 1801, he i)reached occasionally, both while professor and president, for congregations of dift'erent denominations. After retiring from the presidency, he was elected to several civil offices of trust by the citizens of Provi- dence. He died Oct. II, 183G, Dr. Messer published a number of discourses and orations, — Sprague, Annuls of the Amer, Pulpit, vi, 326.
Messer, Leon, also called Mestue Leox, Leone Hehi£EI), "was the oldest son of the famous statesman, philosopher, theologian, and commentator. Don Isaac b.-Jehudah Abrabancl (q.v.), whose full name was Don Jehuda Leon b.-Isauk Abravand. He is better known as Leo Ilebrceus. Leon Messer was born at Lisbon near the close of the loth century. When the Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492, he accompanied his father in all his peregrinations, and finally settled at Genoa, where he practiced medicine with great repute, for which cause he was also called '"^ledico Hcbreo." He was a profound philosopher, and an excellent ]ioet. His PhthM/raphij, or JJialof/h I di A more (Home, 1535; Venice, 1007 ). contains disquisitions on the doctrines of Neo-Platonism, the symbols of mythology, the Hebrew Kabala, and the Arabian philosophy. It exists in French, Spanish, and Latin translations, all made in the ICth century. He also wrote some poems in honor of his fa- ther, an elegy on his death, and a poem of ISO stanzas descriptive of the vicissitudes of his life, and containing , exhortations to his son. He was also a gocnl mathe- j matician, and an amateur in music. The date of his death is not known. Conip. EUrst, Pibtioth. .Iiid. ii, 230 ', S(i. ; Lindo, History of the ,/etrs o/'.S'yjdW and Portnf/al, p. 2t)8 sq. ; Vhm,, Scphardim, p. 418; Etheridge, /w/mrf. to J/ebr. Lit. p. 449 sq. ; Da Costa, L-ni( I and the Ceutiles, p. 377; Ueberweg, History of J'hiloscphy (transl. by C. Jlorris, N, Y. 1872), p. 428 ; JIunk, L'sqnisse hi^toriqiie de la philosophie chez les Juifs ((Jerm. transl. by B. Beer, Leipsic, 1852), p. 37, 84 sq. ; Zunz, Literaturgesch. d. Syn- agog, J'oesie, p. 524 ; Geschichte tind Literatur, p. 250, 31G; Ticknor, Hist, of Spani.ih Literature (Am. ed.), iii, 189, I9(J, note ; Jost, Oesrhichte d. .hid. u. s. gikt,n. iii, 117; Griitz, Ge.tcli. d. Jud. vol. viii ; but especially Delitzsch's lucid treatise in the L. P. d. Orients, 1840, c. 81 sq., Leo der Jlebriier: Churacteristik seines Zeitalters, seiner liich- fung und seiner ]\'erke. (B. P.)
MESSIAH
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MESSIAH
Messi''ah, the special title of the Saviour promised to the world through the Jewish race. We have space for the discussion of a few points only of this extensive theme, in treating of which we partly avail ourselves of the matter furnished in Kitto's and Smith's Diction- aries. See Redeemek.
I. Official Import of the Name. — The Hebrew word JT^'d^, Mashi'acli, is in every instance of its use (thir- ty-nine times) rendered in the Sept. by the suitable term Xpiaroc, which becomes so illustrious in the N. T. as the oiBciai designation of the Holy Saviour. It is a verbal noun (see Simonis Arcanum Form. Heir. Ling. p. 92 sq.), derived from n^'2, and has much the same meaning as the participle n^lIJ'Q (2 Sam. iii, 39, and oc- casionally in the Pentateuch), i. e. Anointed. The prev- alent and all but universal (Isa. xxi, 5 and Jer. xxii, 14 being perhaps the sole exceptions) sense of the root ri'wj points to the consecration of objects to sacred purposes by means of anointing-oil. Inanimate objects (such as the tabernacle, altar, laver, etc.) are included under the use of the verb ; but the noun H'^'d^ is ap- plied only to animate objects. There is, however, some doubt as to 2 Sam. i, 21— •|'2T;;3 0"'^^ 1^3 bsixd '.^ri — where, according to some (Maurer,Gesenius,Fiirst; see also Corn, h Lapide, ad loc), the phrase, " not anointed with oil," is applied to the shield (comp. Isa. xxi, 5). The majority of commentators refer it to Suvl, " as if he had not been anointed with oil." So the A. V., which seerns to follow the Vulgate. This version, however {quasi non esset imctus oleo), is really as inexplicit as the original, admitting the application of "anointed" to either the king or his shield. This double sense is avoided by the Septuagint {Ovpecc Sooi'X oix txpia^'] iv tXai(ij), which assigns the anointing, as an epithet, to the shield. The Targum of Jonathan refers the H'^'d^ to Saul, but drops the negative. To us the unvarying use of the wonl, as a human epithet, in all the other (thirty-eight) passages, two of them occurring in the very context of the disputed place (2 Sam. i, 14, 16), settles the point in favor of our A. V., as if thfe king had fallen on the fatal field of Gilboa like one of the com- mon soldiers, " not as one who had been anointed Avith oil." See Anointing.
The official persons ("the Christs of the O.T.:" Pe- Towne. Coherence of 0. ami A\ T.) -who were consecrated with oil were priests (Exod. xxviii, 41 ; Levit. iv, 3, 5, 16; Numb, xxxv, 35), lings (1 Sam. ix, 16; xvi, 3; 2 Sam. xii, 7 ; 1 Kings i, 34), and proj^hets (1 Kings xix, 16). The great Antitype, the Christ of the N. T., em- braced and exhausted in himself these several offices, which, in fact, were shadows of his threefold functions as the Prophet, Priest, and King of his people. It is the pre-eminence which this combination of anointed of- fices gave him that seems to be pointed at in Psa. xlv, 8, where the great IMessiah is anointed " above his fel- lows ;" above the Christs of old, whether of onl}^ one function, as the priest Aaron, or the prophet Elisha, or the king Saul ; or of two functions, as Melchizedek the priest and king, or Moses the priest and prophet, or Da- vid the king and prophet. In our Saviour Christ is uniquely found the triple comprehension, the recapitu- lation in himself of the three offices (see Eusebius, Bist. Eccles. i, 3, vol. i, p. 24, by Burton [Oxon. 1848]). But not only were the ancient offices typical, the material of consecration had also its antitype in the Holy Ghost (CjTil of Jerusalem, Catech. Ilium, x, 99; Cutech. Nfo0. p. 202, 203 ; Basil, contra Eunom. v ; Chrysostom on Psa. xlv ; Theodoret, Epit. divin. Decret. xi, p. 279 ; Theophy- lact on Matt, i ; CEcumenius on Rom. i, etc.). The prophecy of Isa. Ixi, 1 ('• The Spirit of the Lord Jeho- vah is upon me. because Jehovah hath anointed me") was expressly claimed by Jesus for fulfilment in the synagogue at Nazareth (Luke iv, 16-21) on his return to Galilee "m the power of the Spirit" (ver. 14), which