I 1. The promised Messiah has already come. To prove , this assertion, we shall contine our remarks to three j prophecies. (1.) The first is the passage above com- mented on, occurring in Gen. xlix, 8, 10, where Jacob is giving his sons his parting benediction, etc. ^^■hen he comes to Judah, he says : "The sceptre shall not de- part from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come ; and unto him shall the obedience of the people be." It is evident that by Judah is here meant, not the jmson, but the tribe ; for Judah died in Egypt, without any pre-eminence. By sceptre and lawgiver are obviously intended the legislative and rul- ' ing power, which did, in the course of time, commence in David, and which for centuries aftenvards was con- tinued in his descendants. Whatever variety the form of government — whether monarchical or aristocrat ical — might have assumed, the law and polity were still the scune. This prediction all the ancient Jews referred to the Messiah. Ben-Uzziel renders it, " Until the time when the king Messiah shall come." The Targum of Onkelos speaks to the same effect, and that of Jerusa- lem paraphrases it thus : " Kings shall not cease from the house of Judah, nor doctors that teach the law from his children, until that the king Messiah do come, whose the kingdom is; and all nations of the earth shall be subject unto him." Now that the sceptre has departed from Judah, and, consequently, that the Mes- siah has come, we argue from the acknowledgments of some most learned Jews themselves. Kimchi thus com- ments on Hosea : " These are the days of our captiv- ity, wherein we have neither king nor prince in Israel; but we are in the power of the Gentiles, and under their kings and princes." Again, Abarbanel, commenting on Isa. liii, says that it is a great part of their misery in their captivity that thej- have neither kingdom nor rule, nor a scejttre of judgment ! The. 7;?-((/.-v' time when all authority departed from Judah is disputed. Some date its dejjarture from the time when Herod, an Muiiia'an, set aside the IMaccabees and Sanliedrim. 'riiereupon the Jews are said to have shaved their heads, put on sackcloth, and cried, "Woe to us, because the sceptre is departed from Judah, and a lawgiver from beneath his feet !" Others think that it was when Vespasian and Titus destroyed Jerusalem and the Tim- ple that the Jews lost the last vestige of authority. If, therefore, the sceptre has departed from Judah — and who can question it who looks at the broken-up, scat- tered, and lost state of that tribe for ages'? — the conclu- sion is clearly irresistible that the Messiah must have long since come! To avoid the force of this conclusion the Jews now say that the 1220, she'bet, yvhich we ren- der sceptre, may be translated rod, and metaphorically signifies, in the above passage, aftiction. That the word cannot bear this meaning here is evident, because, for a long while after the projjhecy was uttered, espe- cially in the reigns of David and Solomon, the tribe of Judah was in a most prosperous state. See ScErTUK,
(2.) The next proof that the Messiah has long since come we adduce from Dan. ix, 25, 20, 27. It is evident that the true Jlessiah is here spoken of. He is twice designateil by the \ery name. If we consider wliat the work is which lie is here said to accomplish, we shall have a full confirmation of this. Who but he could finish and take away transgression, make reconciliation for ini(|uity, bring in everlasting righteousness, seal up the vision and prophecy, confirm tlie covenants with many, and cause to cease the sacrifice and oblation? Indeed, there is a saying extant in the Talmud, as the
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tradition of former times, " In Daniel is delivered to us the end of the Messiah," i. e. the term wlierein he ought to come, as it is explained by Jarchi. Grotius {De Ve- ritat. v) speaks of a Jew, K. Berachia, who lived fifty years before our Lord, and who declared that the time fixed by Daniel could not go beyond fifty years ! If then it be the ti-ue Messiah who is described in the above pro]5hecy, it remains for us to see how the time predicted for his coming has long since transpired. This is expressly said to be seventy weeks from the going forth of the commandment to restore and build Jerusa- lem. That by seventy weeks are to be understood sev- enty S3vens of years, a day being put for a year, and a wee'v for seven years, making up 490 years, is allowed by Kimohi, Jarchi, rabbi Saadias, and other learned Jews, as well as by many Christian commentators. It is clear that these seventy weeks cannot consist of weeks of days, for all put together make but one year, four months, and odd days — a space of time too short to crowd so many various events into as are here specified; nor can any such time be assigned between the two cap- tivities, wherein like events did happen (see Prideaux, Connect, lib. v, pt. 1). This period of time then must have long since elapsed, whether we date its commence- ment from the first decree of Cyrus (Ezra i, 1, 2), the second of Darius Hystaspes (vi, 15), or that of Arta- xerxes (viii, 1). See Grotius, Be Veritat. v ; Josephus, War, vii, 12, 13. See Seventy Weeks.