he had plenarily received at his recent baptism (ver. 1), and by which he was subsequently led into the wil- derness (ver. 1). This anointing of our Lord to his Mes- sianic functiotis is referred to in a general sense in such passages as Isa. xi, 2 and Acts x, 38. But from the more specific statement of Peter (Acts ii, 36), it would appear that it was not before his resurrection and con- sequent ascension that Christ was fully inducted into his Messianic dignities. "He was anointed to his pro- phetical office at his baptism ; but thereb}- rather in- itiated to be, than actually made Christ and Lord. Unto these two offices of everlasting Priest and everlasting King he was not actually anointed, or fully consecrated, until his resurrection from the dead" (dean Jackson, Works, vii, 368). As often as the evangelists style him Christ before his resurrection from the dead, it is by way of anticij)ation (ibid. p. 296). On this point, in- deed, the grammatical note of (iersdorf (Sprachchar. i, 39, 272), as quoted by Winer {Gram, des N. T. sprachiJ. iii, 18, p. 107 : Clark, p. 130), is interesting : " The four evangelists almost always write o Xptarui; [the ex- pected Messiah, like 6 tpxeipevoQ^, while Paul and Pe- ter employ Xpioroc, as the appellation had become more of a proper name. In the epistles of Paul and Pe- ter, however, the word has the article when a gov- erning noun precedes" (for extremely elaborate tables, containing every combination of the sacred names of Christ in the N.T., the reader is referred to the last edi- tion of bishop Middleton's Doctrine of the Greek A Hi- de, by H. J. Rose, B.D., App. ii, p. 486-496). Twice only in the N. T. does the Hebrew form of it (INIessias) occur, in John i, 41 and iv, 25 ; and twice only in the O.T. have our translators retained the same form (IMes- siah), in Dan. ix, 25 and 26. In these passages, both in the Greek of the evangelist [Mtauiac, or (as (iriesbach preferred to read) Mtoiac, more closely like the orig- inal] and in the Hebrew of the prophet [H'^'^'C], there is an absence of the article — the word having, in fact, grown out of its appellative state, which so oltcn occurs in the earlier books, into a proper name ; thus resem- bling the course of the Xpiaroq of the Christian Script- ures. See Christ.
II. The gradual Growth of the Messianic Revelation. — 1. First or Patriarchal Period. — (1.) In the primeval promise (Gen. iii, 15) lies the germ of a universal bless- ing. The tempter came to the woman in the guise of a serpent, and the curse thus pronounced has a reference both to the serpent which was the instrument, and to the tempter that employed it; to the natural terror and enmity of man against the serpent, and to the conflict between mankind redeemed by Christ its Head, and Sa- tan that deceived mankind. Many interpreters would understand by the seed of the woman the Jlessiah only ; but it is easier to think with Calvin that mankind, after they are gathered into one army bj^ Jesus the Christ, the Head of the Church, are to achieve a victorj- over evil. The Messianic character of this prophecy has been much questioned by those who see in tlie history of the fall nothing but a fable : to those who accept it as true, this passage is the primitive germ of the Gospel, " The seed of the woman," the vagueness and obscurity of which phrase was so suited to the period of the pro- tevangelium, is cleared in the light of the N. T. (see Gal. iv, 4, where the yevo^itvov tK yvvatKog explains the original il""lt). The deliverance intimated was no doubt understood by our first parents to be universal, like the injury- sustained, and it is no absurdity to sup- pose that the promise was cheiished afterwards by thoughtfiil Gentiles as well as believing Jews; but to the latter it was subsequently shaped into increasing precision by supplementary revelations, while to the for- mer it never lost its formal vagueness and obscurity. The O. T. gives us occasional gleams of the glorious pri- meval light as it struggled with the gross traditions of the heathen. The nearer to Israel the clearer the light ; as in the cases of the Abimelechs (Gen. xx, 6 ; xxvi,
MESSIAH
136
MESSIAH
28), and Jlelchizcdek (Gen. xiv, 18), and Job (xix, 25), 1 nibd-1b, " Prince of Peace," of Isa. ix, 5 [6] ; and the
and Balaam (Xiimb. xxiv. 17), and the mafti (Matt, ii), ! _,i, J; fc.',.r,M ■ .,/•-.»•..
, ,, .. ^ •, /, , • .1- , ^ 1 Di5T13 HT, ''lliis man IS peace, of Micah V, 4: and the
and the Samaritan woman (John iv, 2o; and see, on | t •■' i > > » <» " i"^
the Cliristology of the Samaritans, Westcott's Introduc- \ 015"'^ "i?7j "t''e peace-speaker," of Zech. ix, 10; and tlon, p. 1-18, 149). But even at a distance from Israel i the Elpijvr) t'lfiwr, '"our peace," of Paul, Eph. ii, 14— in the light still flickered to the last, as "the unconscious a word, our ISIessiah, Jesus Clirist. This, then, is the prophecies of heathendom" show, as archbishop Trench [ first case in which the promises distinctlj- centre in one happily designates— though in a somewhat different i person ; and he is to be the man of peace ; he is to wield sense— the yearnings of the Gentiles after a deliverer and retain the government, and the nations shall look {llulsean Lectures for 1840; see also bishop Ilorsley's up to him and obey him. Sec Shiloh. Uissert. on the Messianic Prophecies dispersed umoti(j the\ 2. Mosaic Period. — (1.) The next passage usually J/eathen, in Hermons, ed. 1829, ii, 203-318; and comp. quoted is the propliecy of Balaam (Numb, xxiv, 17-19). Virgil's well-known eclogue Pidlio, and the expectations Tlie star points indeed to the glory, as the sceptre de- mentioned by Suetonius, \'it. Vespasian, iv, 8, and Taci- notes the power, of a king. Onkelos and Jonathan tus, /list. V, 9, 13, and the Sibylline oracles, discussed by (pseudo) see here tlie Jlessiah. But it is doubtful Horsley [ut siip.^, with a strong leaning to their au- whether the prophecy is not fulfilled in David (2 Sam. thenticity). See below, § iv, 1 (3). But although the | viii, 2, 14) ; and though David is himself a type of promise was absolutely inticlliiiir lo I lie first father of Christ, the direct Messianic application of this place is