23. The Prophets after the Division of the Kingdom until the Reign of Jehoshaphat and the Dynasty of Omri, 26. The Relation of the three oldest Prophetic Writings to 27. The View of Hosca, the Ephraimitic Prophet of the Final 28. Isaiah's Fundamental Ideas in their Original Form, 29. The Great Trilogy of Messianic Prophecies, Isa, vii., ix., xi., I. Immanuel, the Son of the Virgin, 30. The Great Trilogy of Messianic Prophecies, Isa. vii., ix., xi., 36. Habakkuk's Solution of Faith, and Faith's Object, 45. Post-Exilic Prophecy in view of the New Temple,. PRELIMINARY REMARKS. IT T is undeniable, and is universally recognised, that in the Scriptures of the Old Testament, One divinely anointed, a Messiah, who is to go forth from Israel, is promised and hoped for, who makes His people victorious and powerful, and who from them. extends His dominion to a world dominion. The Jews still look for this Messiah; Christianity-and to a certain extent also Islam-sees the promise fulfilled in Jesus. This Jesus is regarded by us Christians as the promised Christ, i.e. the Messiah.1 Christianity is the 1 Sadly morbid exceptions to this Christian recognition of Jesus as the Christ are made in Konynenburg's investigations concerning the nature of the Old Testament prophecies respecting the Messiah, who entirely denies the existence of Messianic prophecies, which have been fulfilled, or are to be fulfilled,1 since he considers the expectation which the Jews entertain of an ideal King as a product of moral perversity: also by Lord Amberly, who declares that the rejection of Jesus as Messiah is fully justifiable, since it is an astonishing assumption on the part of Gentile Christians, that they are more competent than the Jews themselves to give an opinion, as to what the name of the Messiah signifies and requires.2 1 Konynenburg, Untersuchung über die Natur der Alttestamentl. Weissagungen auf den Messias aus dem Holländischen übersetzt, Lugen 1759, 395 ff. 2 An Analysis of Religious Belief, London 1876, vol. i. p. 388 f. A same as the religion of the Messiah, the religion which has the Christ, who appeared in Jesus, as its principle and centre. Hence the name Christianity indicates that it claims to be the religion which is being prepared in the history and word and writing of the Old Testament. Even when we call it the New Testament religion, we thus recognise that it is the religion of a covenant which has taken the place of the old, but not without having the old as a first step, and not without standing in connection with it as the fruit with the tree, the child with the mother. Hence Christianity in the Old Testament is in the process of development. With the same propriety we can say Christ, through the Old Testament, is in the act of coming. Is is true that the man Jesus has a temporal beginning, beyond which His existence as a man does not extend. But in this fact, that He appeared in the fulness of time, God's counsel was fulfilled; and since Jesus is certainly the man who above all others had God dwelling in Himself, the approach of God, who proposes to reveal Himself and perfect the work of salvation through Him, is at the same time an approach of Jesus. His coming in the Old Testament is therefore something more than merely ideal. These are views which Christians hold in common -indisputable propositions which, from a Christian standpoint, express a historical fact without presupposing any closer dogmatic statements. We em phasize this intentionally, in order to attract as far as possible the circle of those to whose sympathy we appeal for the following investigations. How much we should rejoice, if we could also secure the sympathy of those belonging to the Jewish confession who are seeking after the truth. It is indeed worth the while for such to see how Christianity justifies itself as the religion of fulfilled prophecy; and this all the more, since the self-testimony of Christianity, in the present condition of the investigation of the Scriptures, and in view of the restless sifting and decomposition of almost everything which has hitherto been accepted, must be more thoroughly revised, more exact, more many - sided, in many respects different, from that which was usual in earlier centuries, and which has been handed down even to the later missionary literature. It is a delightful theme, a joyful work, in which we propose to be absorbed.1 The Lord is in the process of coming in the Old Testament, in drawing near, in proclaiming His appearance, and we design to transport ourselves into this Old Testament period, and follow the steps of the One who is coming, pursue the traces of the One who is drawing near, seek out the shadows which He casts upon the way of His Old Testament 1 This view, indeed, was not held by Schleiermacher, who, in his second Sendschreiben to Lücke, Theologische Studien u. Kritiken, Hamburg 1829, vol. ii. p. 497, says: “I can never consider this effort to prove Christ out of the Old Testament prophecies a joyful work, and am sorry that so many worthy men torment themselves with it." |
