[689] This view is adopted almost unanimously by modern writers.
[690] This view is defended with much skill by Mr. McClellan in his New Testament, vol. i. pp. 409-422.
[691] So Grotius, Bishop Lord Arthur Hervey, and after him most modern English writers.
[692] The Davidic descent of the Virgin-Mother - which is questioned by some even among orthodox interpreters - seems implied in the Gospel (St. Luke i. 27, 32, 69; ii. 4), and an almost necessary inference from such passages as Rom. i. 3; 2 Tim. ii. 8; Hebr. vii. 14. The Davidic descent of Jesus is not only admitted, but elaborately proved - on purely rationalistic grounds - by Keim (u. s. pp. 327-329).
[693] This is the general view of antiquity.
[694] St. Luke i. 36.
[695] Reference to this union of Levi and Judah in the Messiah is made in the Test. xii. Patriarch., Test. Simeonis vii. (apud Fabr. Cod. Pseudepigr. vol. ii. p. 542). Curiously, the great Hillel was also said by some to have descended, through his father and mother, from the tribes of Judah and Levi - all, however, asserting his Davidic origin (comp. Jer. Taan. iv. 2; Ber. R. 98 and 33).
[696] Comp, Maimonides, Yad haChaz Hil. Sanh. ii. The inference would, of course, be the same, whether we suppose Mary's mother to have been the sister-in-law, or the sister, of Elisabeth's father.
[697] St. Luke ii. 24.
[698] Comp. Sketches of Jewish Social Life in the Days of Christ,' pp. 143-149. Also the article on Marriage' in Cassell's Bible-Educator, vol. iv. pp. 267-270.
[699] There was a third mode, by cohabitation; but this was highly disapproved of even by the Rabbis.
[700] The assertion of Professor Wünsche (Neue Beitr. zur Erläuter. d. Evang. p. 7) that the practice of betrothal was confined exclusively, or almost so, to Judæa, is quite ungrounded. The passages to which he refers (Kethub. i. 5 - not 3 - and especially Keth. 12 a) are irrelevant. Keth. 12 a marks the simpler and purer customs of Galilee, but does not refer to betrothals.
[701] I have rendered the Greek chare by the Hebrew {hebrew} and for the correctness of it refer the reader to Grimm's remarks on 1 Macc. x. 18 (Exeget. Handb. zu d. Apokryph. 3^tte Lief. p. 149).
[702] Judg. vi. 12.
[703] Bengel aptly remarks, Non ut mater gratiae, sed ut filia gratiae.' Even Jeremy Taylor's remarks (Life of Christ, ed. Pickering, vol. i. p. 56) would here require modification. Following the best critical authorities, I have omitted the words, Blessed art thou among women.'
[704] We here refer, as an interesting corroboration, to the Targum on Ps. xlv. 7 (6 in our A. V.). But this interest is intensely increased when we read it, not as in our editions of the Targum, but as found in a MS. copy of the year 1208 (given by Levy in his Targum. Wörterb. vol. i. p. 390 a). Translating it from that reading, the Targum thus renders Ps. xlv. 7, Thy throne, O God, in the heaven' (Levy renders, Thy throne from God in heaven,' but in either case it refers to the throne of the Messiah) is for ever and ever' (for world without end,' {hebrew} a rule of righteousness is the rule of Thy kingdom, O Thou King Messiah!'
[705] In Pirqé de R. El. c. 11, the same boundless dominion is ascribed to Messiah the King. In that curious passage dominion is ascribed to ten kings,' the first being God, the ninth the Messiah, and the tenth again God, to Whom the kingdom would be delivered in the end, according to Is. xliv. 6; Zechar. xiv. 9; Ezek. xxxiv. 24, with the result described in Is. lii. 9.
[706] Pirqé de R. El. 32, at the beginning.
[707] Professor Wünsche's quotation is here not exact (u. s. p. 414).
[708] St. Matt. i. 21.
[709] Weiss (Leben Jesu, 1882, vol. i. p. 213) rightly calls attention to the humility of her self-surrender, when she willingly submitted to what her heart would feel hardest to bear - that of incurring suspicion of her purity in the sight of all, but especially in that of her betrothed. The whole account, as we gather from St. Luke ii. 19, 51, must have been derived from the personal recollections of the Virgin-Mother.