proach which can thereby lead to more rational judgments and more fruitful issues in this important field. The great leaders and teachers of Israel, preeminently the prophets, were the chief bearers of these messianic thoughts and expectations, and the division of the subject into epochs of development follows naturally, and, for the most part, is characterized by, their successive appearance and work. The periods are the following: (1) The Divisions of Pre-Mosaic Ages; (2) The Mosaic Age; (3) The the Subject. United Kingdom; (4) Times of the Earlier Prophets; (5) Times of Isaiah; (6) Times of Jeremiah; (7) The Exile; (8) The Post-Exilic Period to the Maccabean Uprising; (9) From the Maccabees to Jesus. The literary material forming the basis of the work of the student in these periods is quite various. All of it, indeed, has to do with an anticipation of future blessing. A large part consists of utterances of prophets relating to the future, contemplated as on the point of realization, expectations of blessing rising out of present conditions and extending on into a far distant day. These might be called messianic prophecies of the present. Character of Again, the prophet can find nothing of hopefulness in the present situation, and overleaping all temporal bounds, he passes as if by reaction into a future which is as much brighter and more glorious as the present is forbidding. This is mes the Material. an Interpre ter of Jehovah's Activity. sianic prophecy of the future. Or, he looks back on the history of mankind and his people, as it has come down to him in legends, traditions, songs, and story, in chronicles and annals, in oracles and institutions; he studies it in the light of the divine inspiration in his own spirit and experience, and combines, organizes, interprets it for his generation in its bearing upon the eternal purpose of Jehovah, his blissful designs for his people in the days to come. This is messianic prophecy of the past. He may cast this material into any form, whether the sermon or oration, the poem or psalm, or the prose narrative. But in all forms. The Prophet the prophet is interpreting to his generation that which should assure them of Jehovah's purpose of future blessing. Sometimes it is his interpretation of the present that defines for him the future; sometimes he turns his back upon the present, and, as if in spite of it, interprets the future directly; sometimes he reads out of the past the promise that is to be realized. Where the men of his day are blind, he has clear vision. Where the events of the past are dull and dim, or the words from the heroes of old, or divine oracles of early days, wrapped up in the husk of legend, or made uncertain or mysterious by the indefiniteness of oral tradition, he re-creates, translates, expands, and transforms event and word and oracle alike into a living and hopeful message. He seeks, not his torical accuracy, but living meaning, in the past, and does not hesitate in his consciousness of speaking the truth to make over the dry details and hazy outlines into elements of inspiration and power, significant for all time.1 Thus everywhere messianic prophecy is an interpretation; and the wonderful fact that this interpretation foreshadows the Christ of the New Testament cannot fail to appear in any serious and candid study of the subject. The course of procedure will be to take up one by one the several periods, and in general (1) to determine the character of the material; then (2) to frame a picture of the historical situation from which the hopes were projected; then (3) to study the various passages; and finally (4) to sum up the nature and extent of the "preparation" which the period illustrates. 1 See Ottley, Aspects of the Old Testament, p. 296: "Messianic prediction was to a considerable extent the result of a continuous process of reflection on the history of the past." CHAPTER I THE MESSIANIC INTERPRETATIONS OF THE PRE-MOSAIC AGE I. THE material bearing upon this period is The Litera- contained in the Book of Genesis. This book pre ture. serves the fine gold of primitive Hebrew tradition, sifted and refined by generations of inspired students of Jehovah's will. From the point of view of literary form, the book is a composite.1 It is made up of materials from many sources, ancient poetry, prophecy, history, coming from various authors, put together long after the events which it records. It is conditioned by elements which belong to later periods, the understanding of which depends upon our apprehension of the 1 The critical analysis of Genesis discloses at least three different literary works out of which it has been compiled, written respectively by two prophetic writers, for whom the symbols J and E are used, and one priestly writer, for whom the symbol P is employed. The dates of these works are uncertain. J and E can hardly be later than the beginning of the eighth century, J being possibly earlier than E, while P was written probably after the Exile, during which period the Book of Genesis took its present form. Cf. Driver, Introduction to the Literature of the Old Testament, sixth ed., 1897, Ch. I. The most learned commentary on Genesis is that of Dillmann, 2 vols. social and religious atmosphere in which they are produced. These Tradireceived the tions have phetic Inter later Pro II. It follows, therefore, that only messianic prophecy of the past is to be expected in the Book of Genesis. In the case of such material, it is needless as well as futile to ask how far actual preservation of definite historical facts and details can be expected. Doubtless not more than the germs of thoughts and ideals now clearly visible were present there, but they were living and growing. No literary or spiritual analysis is keen pretation. enough to discern them now. The book is the work of prophets who had before them a great mass of primitive tradition which the Hebrew people cherished concerning the beginning of the world and man, the early movements of peoples, and the origins of their own nation. All these materials are organized, interpreted, and idealized under the influence of the religious conceptions and aspirations of later ages, in which the religious education and divine guidance of Israel's teachers had passed beyond the elementary stage.1 It is from this point of view that the pre-Mosaic material must be studied, as an interpretation rather than a record of the past. Thus these prophecies illustrate two periods, both that with which their traditions deal, and that to which the prophets belong who have given them their form. They interpret the aspirations of the earlier age; but the - 1 Cf. Riehm, Mess. Proph., p. 62 f. |