The question is asked. Have the prophet's denuncia- tions of the Edomites been fulfilled, and has his vision of Zion's glories been realized? Typically, partially, and imperfect)}' thej' have been fulfilled, but, as Rosen- miiller justly says, they await a fuller accomplishment. The first fulfilment of the denunciation on Edom in all probability took place a few years after its utterance. For we read in Josephus (.4 nt. x, 9, 7) that five years after the capture of Jerusalem Nebuchadnezzar reduced the Ammonites and Moabites, and after their reduction made an expedition into Egypt. This he could hardly have done without at the same time reducing Idumaja, A more full, but still only partial and typical fulfil- ment took place in the time of John Hyrcaniis, who utterly reduced the Idumirans, and only allowed them to remain in their country on the condition of their be- ing circumcised and accepting the Jewisli rites, after which their nationality was lost forever (Joseph. Ant. xiii, 9, 1). Similarly the return from the Babylonian captivity would typically and imperfectly fulfil the promise of the restoration of Zion and the extension of her borders. But " magnificent ior sane est hwc pro- missio quam ut ad Sorobalielica aut ]\Iaoabaica tempora referri possit," says Rosenmiiller on ver. 21 ; and"ne- cessitas cogit ut omnia ad priedicationem evangelii re- feramus," says Luther. The full completion of the prophetical descriptions of the glories of Jerusalem — the future golden age towards which the seers stretched their hands with fond yearnings — is to be looked for in the Christian, not in the Jewish Zion— in the antitype rather than in the type. Just as the fate of Jerusalem and the destruction of tlie world are interwoven and in- terpenetrate each other in the prophecy uttered by our Lord on the mount, and his words are in part fulfilled by the one event, but only fully accomplished in the other, so in figure and in type the jircdictions of Oba- diah may have been accomplished by Nebuchadnezzar, Zcrubbabel, and Hyrcanus, but their complete fulfilment is reserved for the fortunes of the Christian Church and
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her adversaries. Whether that fulfilment has already occurred in the spread of the Gospel through the world, or whether it is yet to come (Kev. xx, 4), or whether, being conditional, it is not to be expected save in a lim- ited and curtailed degree, is not to be determined here. The book of Obadiah is a favorite study of the mod- ern Jews. It is here especially that they read the future fate of their own nation and of the Christians. Those unversed in their literature may wonder where the Christians are found in the book of Obadiah. But it is a fixed principle of rabbinical interpretation that by Edomites is prophetically meant Christians, and that by Edom is meant Rome. Thus Kimchi (on Obadiah) lays it down that " all that the prophets have said about the destruction of Edom in the last times has reference to Rome." So rabbi Bechai, on Isa. Ixvi, 17 ; and Abarbanel has written a commentary on Obadiah resting on this hypothesis as its basis. Other ex- amples are given by Buxtorf (^Lex. Talm. in voc. miS, and Sijnagoga Judaica). The reasons of this rabbin- ical dictum are as various and as ridiculous as might be imagined. Nachmanides, Bechai, and Abarbanel say that Janus, the first king of Latium, was grandson of Esau. Kimchi (on Joel iii, 19) says that Julius Cifisar was an Idumaean. Scaliger {ad Chron. Euseb.n.2lb2) reports, '■ The Jews, both those who are comparatively ancient and those who are modern, believe that Titus was an Edomite, and when the prophets denounce pAlom they frequently refer it to Titus." Aben-Ezra says that there were no Christians except such as were Iduma?ans until the time of Constantine, and that Con- stantine liaving embraced their religion, the whole Ro- man empire became entitled Idumajan. Jerome says that some of the Jews read ITC^I, Rome, for il^^n, Du- mah, in Isa. xxi, 11. Finally, some of the rabbins, and with them Abarbanel, maintain that it was the soul of Esau which lived again in Christ. The color given to the prophecies of Obadiah, when looked at from this point of view, is most curious. The following is a specimen from Abarbanel on ver. 1: "The true expla- nation, as I have said, is to be found in this: The Idu- majans, by which, as I have shown, all the Christians are to be understood (for they took their origin from Rome), will go up to lay waste Jerusalem, which is the seat of holiness, and where the tomb of their God Jesus is, as indeed they have several times gone up al- ready." Again, on ver. 2 : "I have several times shown that from Edom proceeded the kings who reigned in Italy, and who built up Rome to be great among the nations and chief among the provinces ; and in this way Italy and Greece and all the western provinces became filled with Idumreans. Thus it is that the prophets call the whole of that nation by the name of Edom." On ver. 8 : •' There shall not be found counsel or wisdom among the Edomitish Christians when they go up to that war." On ver. 19 : " Tliose who have gone as ex- iles into the Edomites', that is, into the Christians' land, and have there suffered afiliction, will deserve to have the best part of their country and their metropolis as Mount Seir." On ver. 20: " Sarepta" is "France;" " Sepharad" is " Spain." The " iMount of Esau," in ver. 21, is " the city of Rome," which is to be judged ; and the Saviours are to be " the [Jewish] Messiah and his chieftains," who are to be " Judges."