Local and visible Manifestations, Intercourse and Instructions as characterizing the primeval and Mosaic Dispensations—Local Presence of the Messenger Jehovah in the Tabernacle.
It being evident that the Messiah appeared to the patriarchs in a visible form, that they recognized him under various designations, saw him face to face, conversed with him, offered to him burnt offerings and prayers, believed in him with that faith which is unto righteousness, received from him revelations, promises, and covenants, and in all the aspects and relations in which he appeared, regarded him as their God and the God of providence and grace, their Creator, Preserver, Lawgiver, and Ruler, it is safe to conclude that this method of personal and visible manifestation and intercourse was a primary and essential characteristic of that dispensation. If the instances of such personal appearance and intercourse in which minute details are recorded, as in that to Abraham in the plain of Mamre,and that to Jacob at Peni-El, are not greatly multiplied, they are yet sufficiently numerous, considered in connection with the occasions, circumstances and expressions by which other instances are distinguished, to warrant us in supposing the frequent occurrence of like manifestations to the same individuals, and to many others of whose personal history no extended details are recorded, and many others of whom nothing, or nothing except their names, is mentioned. Moreover, when Moses wrote, such visible manifestations were familiar to the Israelites, and in his retrospective history no more required to be specially mentioned, except as incidents interwoven with, and inseparable from, the personal narratives of the past, than full details respecting sacrificial offerings, their typical references, the law of the Sabbath, and other matters, which were in like manner familiar, and constituted the essential elements of their religious system.
There is ground to conclude that this mode of manifestation was coëval with the creation; and that, if there had been no apostasy of man, He “for whom are all things, and by whom are all things,” would have continued visibly and constantly present with the race on earth, as he will be after he shall have destroyed the last enemy, and obviated the consequences of the fall. At that predicted restitution, a condition of things like that which preceded the defection is to be realized; when he is to dwell with men—their God.
The New Testament clearly ascertains to us that he was personally the Creator. The style and manner in which he spoke and acted, as recorded by Moses in his account of the creation, and in his primeval intercourse with Adam, coincides in familiarity, and may be described as homogeneous, with that employed on occasionsof his visible manifestations to Abraham, Jacob, and others. When he said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness,” it may well be presumed that, among other things, he had reference to that visible form in which he was thenceforth frequently recognized, and in which he at length became incarnate, and will hereafter be seen by every eye.
As instances of the appropriateness of what he said to a person locally present, and speaking and acting as a man would naturally do, the following are referred to: “Hesawevery thing that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day. And on the seventh day, having ended his work, herested, and blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it; because that in it he hadrestedfrom all his work which Elohim created and made.” Such references to time and place imply an actor having coincident relations. Again, “He planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed, and commanded him, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” After the transgression, the same local references, and the like familiarity, and implication of his personal presence, are continued: “And they heard the voice”—according to Owen and others, theWord—“of Jehovah Elohim,walkingin the garden; and Adam and his wife hid themselves fromthe presence”—literally,the face—“of Jehovah Elohim, amongst the trees of the garden. And Jehovah Elohim called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? And he said, I heard thy voice, and I was afraid, and I hid myself.” These passages seem to be demonstrative of the local personal presence of the Divine speaker, as clearly as of that of the guilty couple. They heard himin the garden, and to avoid meeting or being met by him, they hid themselves among the trees. This would have been to no purpose, had he not been locally, but only spiritually present. They heard him walking, and having retreated to a covert for concealment, he called to Adam; acts which, in a plain, literal narrative, imply a local personal presence.
If on this occasion, when the delinquent parties were successively arraigned and questioned, and the sentence of condemnation was pronounced in words addressed personally to each, he was locally present, the otherwise seeming paradox, that the same style and manner of address to the subtle adversary should be employed as to Adam, disappears. So the words addressed to Cain can hardly be thought to have been literally spoken, but upon the supposition that the Divine speaker was locally present, and that his presence was matter of previous and familiar recognition to Cain. A like inference may be made from the statement that Elohim came to Abimelech, and spake to him in a dream, and from his address to Jehovah, Gen. xx.; and also from the statement that Elohim came to Laban in a dream, and his mention of the fact, and of the caution he renewed to Jacob, Gen. xxxi.
Nor is there in any respect any thing improbable in the supposition that he was locally and visibly present in the likeness of man at that period, any more than at subsequent periods. On the contrary, the statement (John i. 1) that theWord—the delegated Person who in due time assumed our nature and was visibly on earth—wasin the beginning, and created all things, implies that he was then recognized in his official character, which implies relations and acts of which place and visibility were indispensable conditions. Such mustundoubtedly have been the case when he was seen, if not uniformly when his voice was heard. He may have been often locally present when, though heard, he was not seen. Such, with respect to Daniel’s companions, was the case in his vision, chap. x. He saw one in the form of man, whose face was as the appearance of lightning, and heard his words; but the men that were with him saw not the vision. And when Paul saw his person so unequivocally as to constitute him a witness of his resurrection, the men accompanying him heard his voice, but saw him not. When it is simply said that he appeared to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, or others, and the narrative proceeds to relate what he said, and what answers were made, the language plainly implies his local personal presence, though no mention is made of his being seen. The occasions and objects of his appearance in such instances were, so far as we can judge, as important and as appropriate to such local and visible manifestations, as those in relation to which it is expressly recorded that he was seen in the likeness of man.
The primeval and Levitical dispensations were specially characterized by visible manifestations, acts, rites and events, embodying, enforcing, and illustrating the great truths which were revealed. Thus, on the part of man, the first prohibition enjoined upon Adam, besides its reference to his will, had relation to an external and visible act, and an external and visible object, the fruit of a particular tree. The ritual of worship prescribing, among other offerings, that of slaughtered animals on an altar, the observance of the Sabbath, the long list of fasts, feasts, convocations, ordinances, rites and ceremonies, and most of the injunctions and prohibitions of the moral law, had respect to outward and visible acts.And on the other hand, the Divine Lawgiver and Ruler manifested himself visibly, announced his revelations and commands in audible words, distinguished the righteous generally by outward prosperity, long life, and numerous descendants, and the wicked by opposite evils, or by special calamities and judgments manifest to public observation. By this method, the personality, the attributes and perfections, the prerogatives and rights, the holiness, faithfulness, mercy and truth of Jehovah, were not only exhibited to the view of all intelligent creatures, fallen and unfallen, but were exhibited in such relations to accountable creatures, in their various circumstances, and in their connections with laws, covenants, promises, and predictions, as to lead unmistakably to a right apprehension of them, and a right apprehension of the conduct of men in view of them; results which, so far as we can judge, could have been produced in no other way, unless by endowing creatures with omniscience, or with plenary inspiration. For, from their nature as created, finite and dependent agents, their thoughts, apprehensions and inferences are successive, and all the knowledge of external things which they acquire otherwise than by inspiration, they acquire by means of their external senses; seeing visible objects, hearing audible sounds, &c. Those to whom these divine manifestations, personal, visible, and audible, were first made, had no prototypes, precedents or analogies, to assist them in gaining right apprehensions, and deducing just conclusions, had the method of instruction been that merely of announcements, from an invisible source, of abstract propositions. But by the method actually adopted, prototypes, precedents and analogies were furnished, which, being recorded in the relations and historical connections in which they occurred andwere observed, serve effectually for the instruction of those to whom similar outward and visible manifestations are not vouchsafed.
On the other hand, by the method taken, the nature, deserts, and consequences of sin were unmistakably shown, by its being embodied and publicly exhibited in visible acts and their consequences. Thus the transgression of Adam, regarded in its connection with the prohibition which had been emphatically enjoined, with his arraignment, and the sentence pronounced upon him, and with his expulsion from Eden, and the curse and blight visibly produced upon the earth on which he was doomed to toil for a subsistence, and at length to decline and die, furnished illustrations of the indescribable turpitude of his apostasy, and of the moral and physical evils that were among its just and legitimate consequences, which neither then nor now could be conveyed in an abstract statement. So the hypocrisy, envy, infidelity, and malignity of Cain, regarded in connection with the knowledge he had of the consequences of Adam’s transgression, and of the laws, obligations, and duties which were binding upon him; and in connection with the remorse visibly depicted on his countenance, his expulsion from the accustomed place of worship and of intercourse with Jehovah, and the spectacle he was to exhibit as a fugitive and a vagabond, despised and shunned as an outcast, for whom the earth, in respect to his tillage of it, was specially cursed and blighted; furnished, to the view of all intelligent observers, lessons and illustrations which could in no other conceivable way have been exhibited.
The like may be observed concerning the spectacle of violence and corruption which all but universally prevailed before the deluge, and on account of which thatexterminating judgment upon the race, with its visible accompaniments and its physical effects upon the earth itself and its irrational inhabitants, was, in the view of the whole universe of accountable creatures, specially and judicially inflicted. Also, concerning the notorious and awful wickedness of Sodom and Gomorrah, and the exterminating retribution visited upon them, making them a public and perpetual example. And, omitting to specify less conspicuous and individual instances to the like effect in the history of the patriarchs, or that of the treatment of the Israelites in Egypt, and its counterpart in the plagues which ensued, or any of later date, it is manifest that this method of manifestation, instruction, warning, and reproof, was characteristic of those early times.
If now, in conformity with “the unanimous opinion of the ancient Church,” we consider that He who in his delegated character is, in Moses and the prophets, designated by all the Divine names and titles, and specially, among his peculiar official titles, by that of the Messenger Jehovah, “was the mediator in all the relations of God to the people,” and, as expressed by Hengstenberg; from the beginning constantly filled up the infinite distance between the Creator and the creation, and was in all ages the Light of the world, and Mediator in all the relations of God to the human race, then his early method of local, personal, and visible manifestations, interpositions, and instructions, is obviously in keeping with that exhibited during his subsequent sojourn on earth, and so accordant with the nature and ends of his official character and its relations and objects, as to imply that the present dispensation is an exception, to be succeeded by one of renewed and more glorious, impressive, and instructive visibility than that of Paradise, whenall his prior administrations and agencies will be completely vindicated, every eye will see him, and every tongue confess that he is Jehovah, to the glory of God the Father.
The foregoing observations may be further illustrated by reference to the tabernacle as the local residence of the Messenger Jehovah, and as in some respects typical.
The pattern of the tabernacle which was shown to Moses in the mount, was a representation to him of the person and work of the Mediator as Priest and King in human nature, which he was required to represent to the children of Israel by the visible structure which he was to erect. Thetruetabernacle, of which this was the figure, was his human nature, in which his sacrifice, intercession, and regal glory were to be realized.
The tabernacle, with its furniture and services, signified to the worshippers the leading truths concerning the person, offices, mediation, incarnation, sacrifice, intercession, and final glory and reign of Christ. It taught these truths by means of visible signs—figures intended to serve that purpose till Christ should come, and in human nature, the true tabernacle, make atonement by shedding his own blood, and openly manifesting the way of reconciliation and access to God through him.
This way into “the holiest of all,”i. e., heaven itself was not to be openly and completely manifested, but only as was practicable through these visible signs and teachings, during the continuance of the tabernacle erected by Moses, and afterwards placed in the first temple, as a figure of the true; but the coming of Christ in the true tabernacle, his human nature, to offer himself a sacrifice, would fulfil and make manifest the things signified in the figure. The tabernacle signified that he would become literally incarnate; but by theactual exhibition of his person in human nature, all obscurity and doubt would be removed.
The tabernacle, as a figure of his incarnate person, included, in the sanctuary within the veil, the golden altar of incense, the ark of the covenant, and the mercy-seat, which was the throne; and in the other apartment, the altar of burnt offering, the show-bread, the candlestick, &c., answering to the offices and benefits of Him who was both priest and sacrifice, altar and mercy-seat.
That they had an ark and tent answerable essentially to the tabernacle anterior to that erected in the wilderness, is implied in several passages. Thus, Exod. xxxiii., before the gifts had been received for the new structure, “Moses tookthe tabernacleand pitched it without the camp, afar off from the camp; ... and as Moses entered intothe tabernacle, the cloudy pillar descended and stood at the door of the tabernacle, and talked [see Heb.] with Moses.” Again, Exod. xvi., on the first dispensation of manna, Aaron is directed to “Take a pot and put an omer full of manna therein, and lay it upbefore Jehovah, to be kept for your generations. So Aaron laid it up before the testimony, to be kept:” that is, probably, in thetentor place where the Shekina dwelt, as afterwards in the tabernacle at Shiloh and Mizpeh, prior to the erection of the temple. The same thing may be implied in the words of the Philistines when the Israelites brought the ark of the covenant into their camp: “The Philistines were afraid, for they said, Elohim is come into the camp. Woe unto us!... this istheElohim that smote the Egyptians.” 1 Sam. iv. As if, in the information they had received concerning the plagues of Egypt, the presence oftheElohim was associated with a tent ortabernacle, and the ark of the covenant. That there was such a place of Divine manifestationamong the Israelites during their sojourn in Egypt and at the legation of Moses, is in the highest degree probable, since the true faith and worship were preserved; and probably it was to that place that Moses, in the progress of his controversy with Pharaoh, often repaired for direction and authority. And Moses returned unto Jehovah, and said, Adonai, wherefore,” &c. Exod. v. “And Moses spakebeforeJehovah....” “And Moses saidbeforeJehovah.” vi. “And Moses went out from Pharaoh, and entreated Jehovah.” viii. “And Moses went out of the city from Pharaoh, [perhaps from the district of the Egyptians to that of the Israelites,] and spread abroad his hands unto Jehovah.” ix. The same word (Sheken or Shekina) which is employed to signify that Jehovahdweltin the pillar of cloud and of fire, and in the tabernacle between the cherubim, is employed also Gen. iii. 24, which may read, “He caused the cherubim todwellat the east of the garden of Eden,”i. e., as in a tent or covering, a tabernacle, or column of cloud or fire.
Doubtless Moses previously understood the true doctrine concerning the person, mediation, and sacrifice of the Divine Mediator; but to qualify him to teach this doctrine and to enforce the duties connected with it, an exhibition was made to him of that Person in the form in which he was to make atonement by the sacrifice of himself. On the occasion of receiving instruction concerning the tabernacle, being called up into the mount, he, with Nadab, Abihu, and seventy of the elders, saw the Elohe of Israel, in the likeness of the God-man, as appears from the allusion to his person, and what took place. “There was underhis feetas it were a paved work of a sapphire stone.... Upon the nobles he laid nothis hand.... They saw (the) Elohim, and did eat and drink.” They evidently saw his person in theform in which he was to execute the priestly office, and which was to be foreshown by the tabernacle. No man hath seen the Father. But Moses saw (the) Elohim, the Elohe of Israel, Jehovah, the Messenger, the God-man. On another occasion Jehovah came down and stood in the door of the tabernacle, and said, “With Moses will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark speeches, and the similitude of Jehovah shall he behold.” Numb. i. He appeared in the form of man to Abraham, Jacob, and others, with no accompaniment of visible glory. Isaiah saw him, the King, Jehovah Zebaoth,seatedon a throne; Ezekiel, in the likeness of a man on a throne, John, as the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to his feet.
After this manifestation to the leaders and elders of Israel, Moses went alone into the midst of the cloud on the mount, and remained there forty days, receiving instructions for himself and the people concerning the tabernacle. “And Jehovah spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, that they bring me an offering, &c.; ... and let them make me a sanctuary, thatI may dwell among them. According to all that I show thee, after the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the instruments thereof, even so shall ye make it.” This perfect model, by an imitation of which he was to represent the incarnate person and sacerdotal work of Christ, was shown to him in the mount. No doubt a visible pattern of the tabernacle and its instruments was shown to him. That it was not a mental vision, or a verbal description merely, by which he was instructed, is clearly indicated by the phraseology above quoted from Exod. xxv. 9: “According to all that I show thee;” more strictly, “According to all that I make thee to see.”
Again, after a variety of directions concerning the table for the show-bread, the candlestick, and other articles of furniture, Jehovah said to Moses, “Look that thou make them aftertheir patternwhich was showed thee in the mount.” Exod. xxv. 40, and xxvi. 30. “Thou shalt rear up the tabernacle according tothe fashion thereofwhich was showed thee in the mount.” And relating to the altar of burnt offerings: “Hollow with boards shalt thou make it: as it was showed thee in the mount, so shalt thou make it.” xxvii. 8. Again, at the dedication of the tabernacle it is said, “According unto the pattern which Jehovah had showed Moses, so he made the candlestick.” Numb. viii. 4.
This phraseology, accompanied as it is by minute verbal descriptions of the several objects, still refers to something more definite; a form, model, pattern, which he was strictly to imitate. The purposes to be answered required perfect accuracy in the copy. And hence the apostle, Heb. viii. 5, alluding to this scene, says: “Moses was admonished of God, when he was about to make the tabernacle: for, See, saith he, that thou make all things according to the pattern showed to thee in the mount.”
This construction is confirmed by a portion of subsequent history. When Solomon was about “to build an house for the sanctuary,” David, instructed by Divine inspiration in respect to the forms of different parts of the edifice, caused patterns or models thereof to be constructed for the guidance of his son. “Then David gave to Solomon the pattern of the porch, and of the houses thereof, and of the treasuries thereof, and of the upper chambers thereof, and of the place of the mercy-seat; and the pattern of all that he had by the Spirit, of the courts of the house of Jehovah, and of all the chambers roundabout, of the treasuries of the house of Elohim, and of the treasuries of the dedicated things.” 1 Chron. xxviii. In these services no discretion was left either to Moses or to Solomon. The things to be made were to be made in exact imitation of the patterns furnished.
If we suppose that Moses beheld the person of the Mediator in the likeness of man, and at the same time beheld the model of the tabernacle and its furniture, by a copy of which he was visibly to prefigure and represent the human nature and the official works of Christ, then the structure erected by him, with the throne, the altar, and all the instruments and rites of the Levitical service, will appear in the highest degree fitted to instruct the people in the great truths concerning his kingly and priestly offices. His consecration of the most holy apartment as his dwelling-place, answerable, as the place of his intercession and of his mediatorial throne to that in which he was to appear after his incarnation and ascension, will be intelligible; and the fact that there he reigned as King, dictated laws, and administered the Theocracy, and that he was on subsequent occasions soon in connection with the visible form and accompaniments of the tabernacle, by Isaiah, Ezekiel, and others, and lastly by John after his ascension, will appear consistent with all that is made known to us of his mediatorial agency and visible manifestations under the primeval, patriarchal, and Mosaic dispensations. During those dispensations he as truly officiated as Mediator as after the full realization of what the tabernacle prefigured; exercised the offices of Prophet, Priest, and King, and dwelt personally in the holy place of the tabernacle after that was prepared, till he formally forsook and withdrew from it, prior to the destruction of the first temple. His officeand relations, as civil head and ruler of the nation, implied his personal presence. That, as their civil ruler, he was King in the same sense as other kingly rulers, appears from what is said when, through unbelief and desire of a leader and judge who should be always visible, they sinfully demanded a king from among themselves, like the kings of other nations: “Ye said, A king shall reign over us, when Jehovah your Elohe was your king.” 1 Sam. xii. 13.
From the oracle, the cover of the mercy-seat in the holy place within the veil, as one ever present, he spoke to Moses, dictated the laws which are recorded after the erection of the tabernacle, and gave responses to the high priest on special occasions, whenever appealed to, not only during the ministry of Moses, but afterwards. And it is to be noticed that, as there were during the earlier dispensations certain localities appropriated to Divine worship, where altars were erected to Jehovah and typical sacrifices offered, and Divine manifestations and revelations were vouchsafed; so, after the tabernacle was set up, and also after it was transferred to the temple, it was the place resorted to for oracular responses as well as for sacrifices of burnt offering. On the occasion of the war with Benjamin, “the children of Israel, and all the people, went up and came unto the house of Elohim, and wept, and sat therebeforeJehovah, and fasted that day until even, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before Jehovah. And the children of Israel inquired of Jehovah, (for the ark of the covenant of [the] Elohim was there in those days, and Phinehas the son of Aaron stood before it in those days,) saying, Shall I yet again go out to battle? &c.... And Jehovah said, Go up,” &c. Judges xx. Thence, in the days of Eli, Jehovah spoke to Samuel 1 Sam. iii. See also Joshua vii. 6; 1 Chron. xxi. 30; 2 Sam. xxii. 7; Psalm xviii. 6; xxvii. 4; Isaiah lxvi. 6.
Now, the tabernacle was erected expressly to be the dwelling-place of Jehovah as Mediator, “Let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them.” Exod. xxv. 28, “Thou shalt put the mercy-seat above upon the ark; and in the ark thou shall put the testimony that I shall give thee. And there I will meet with thee, and I will commune with thee from above the mercy-seat, from between the two cherubim which are upon the ark of the testimony, of all things which I will give thee in commandment unto the children of Israel.” xxv. 21, 22. “There I will meet with the children of Israel, and the tabernacle shall be sanctified by my glory.... And I will dwell among the children of Israel, and will be their God, and they shall know that I am Jehovah their Elohe, that brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, that I may dwell among them.” xxix. 43, 45, 46. The tabernacle in the wilderness had its station in the midst of the camps; from the precincts of which all lepers were to be excluded, “that they defile not their camps in the midst whereof I dwell.” Numb. v. 3. So no satisfaction might be taken for the life of a murderer in the land of Canaan; for blood defiled the land, and it could not be cleansed “but by the blood of him that shed it. Defile not therefore the land which ye shall inhabit, wherein I dwell: for I Jehovah dwell among the children of Israel.” Numb. xxxv. 34. Accordingly we read that “the glory of Jehovah filled the tabernacle.... The cloud of Jehovah was upon the tabernacle by day, and fire was on it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel throughout all their journeys.” Exod. xl. 34, 38.
All this phraseology plainly indicates the local presence of the Personal Word; as plainly as the records of his visible presence on any occasions. Various other scriptures confirm this. When king David said to Nathan, “See now, I dwell in an house of cedar, but the ark of God dwelleth within curtains,” Nathan was directed to “Go and tell David, Thus saith Jehovah, Shalt thou build me an house to dwell in? Whereas I have notdwelt in any housesince the time that I brought up the children of Israel out of Egypt, even to this day; but havewalked in a tent and in a tabernacle.” To this follow allusions to his dealings with David, and promises concerning the future. “Then went king David in [i. e.into the tabernacle] and satbefore Jehovah, ... and made acknowledgments, thanksgivings, and prayers to Jehovah Zebaoth, the Elohe of Israel.” 2 Sam, vii.
It is thus manifest that the tabernacle was intended as the residence of the official Person, and with reference to his official works; and being a figure of his human nature, he dwelt in it, and exercised his prophetic, regal, and priestly offices in it, as he was to do afterwards when literally incarnate. If it represented his human nature, then doubtless he dwelt in it and if he dwelt in it in any sense answerable to his subsequent dwelling in the human nature, then he dwelt in it locally and personally. The services performed there accordingly imply and confirm this view. There was a shedding of blood, the blood of the covenant, which has flowed in every age, through which remission of sin was granted. See Levit. xvii. 2; Heb. ix. 22.
No atonement could be made but by sacrificial blood-shedding; and if the shedding and sprinkling of blood in the tabernacle service prefigured the true atonement, then it referred to the incarnate Word; and if he wasin any manner in the holy place, he must have dwelt there in the person and likeness in which he appeared when visible. If any Divine Person was present in the tabernacle, it must have been the Mediator in his official capacity. For to suppose it to have been the Father, is to suppose that in the Levitical services there was in the minds of the worshippers no recognition of the Mediator.
Accordingly, when he visibly appeared incarnate among men, he spoke of the temple as representing his body. “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.... But he spake of the temple of his body.” John ii. 19, 21. And John, describing the Messiah as he appeared visibly incarnate, says theWordwas God—was in the beginning—created all things. “TheWordbecame flesh and dwelt [literally, tabernacled] among us, and we beheld his glory.” John i. See also the Epistle to the Hebrews, especially chap. viii-x., where the Mosaic tabernacle of witness, as it is called in Numbers and Acts vii., is in all its essential characteristics and objects contrasted with the person and office-work of Christ as he appeared incarnate,—“a minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle, [his human nature,] which the Lord pitched and not man,”—in fulfilment of the things signified and prefigured in the tabernacle of witness, “which was a figure for the time then present.” “But Christ being come, ... by a greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, ... by his own blood entered once into the holy place, [heaven as prefigured by the holy of holies within the veil,] having obtained eternal redemption for us;”i. e., by the offering of his own blood as an atoning sacrifice for sin, as prefigured by the sacrificial shedding of blood in the Levitical service and the patriarchal worship. “He entered not, when he offered himself a sacrifice, into theholy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true, but into heaven itself. Nor yet did he offer himself often, as the high priest entered into the holy place every year with blood of others, but now once at the end of the Levitical economy, he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.” After he had once offered himself a sacrifice for sin, he ascended, and “sat down on the right hand of God, thenceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified. Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: for after that he had said, This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them; and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin. Having therefore boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living [life-giving] way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; and having an High Priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith.”
The foregoing observations and references show, in some degree, how Moses and his inspired successors wrote of the Messiah.
Of the Chaldee Paraphrasts—Their method of designating the PersonalWordor Revealer—Occasion and Necessity of it.
He who, in the primeval dispensation, was, in his official character, distinctively announced as the Messenger Jehovah, and the Messenger Elohim, is, in the same character, no less distinctively announced, on his visible appearance incarnate, as the Word. And, taking the words, John i. 1, last clause, in the order in which they occur in the original, “God (Elohim) was the Word,” He, in that character, is declared to be the Creator. “All things were made by him.” “By him”—referred to as the Son, and as the image of the invisible God, in whom we have redemption through his blood—“were all things created, that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible.” Col. i. These designations and ascriptions undoubtedly identify him in respect to his person, and his official character, with Elohim, who (Gen. i.) in the beginning created the heavens and the earth.
But the designation translated Word—a term employed in the abstract for the concrete, as light for the enlightener, life for life-giver, Logos, or Word, for revealer—has a counterpart, of like personal and official significance, in the Hebrew Scriptures, which was recognized by the ancient Jewish church, and by the Chaldee paraphrasts; and which, in a Chaldee form, the latter in their paraphrases inserted in numerous instances before the Divine names, where they understood them toindicate the official delegated Person, and where the context did not necessarily convey that meaning.
“The Chaldee paraphrases,” says Prideaux, “are translations of the Scriptures of the Old Testament made directly from the Hebrew text into the language of the Chaldeans; which language was anciently used through all Assyria, Babylonia, Mesopotamia, Syria, and Palestine. These paraphrases are calledTargums, because they were versions or translations of the Hebrew text into this language. These Targums were made for the use and instruction of the vulgar Jews, after their return from the Babylonish captivity. For although many of the better sort still retained the knowledge of the Hebrew language during that captivity, and taught it their children; and the Holy Scriptures that were delivered after that time, excepting only some parts of Daniel and Ezra, and one verse in Jeremiah, were all written therein; yet the common people, by having so long conversed with the Babylonians, learned their language and forgot their own. It happened indeed otherwise to the children of Israel in Egypt. For although they lived there above three times as long as the Babylonish captivity lasted, yet they still preserved the Hebrew language among them, and brought it back entire with them into Canaan. The reason of this was, in Egypt they all lived together in the land of Goshen; but on their being carried captive by the Babylonians, they were dispersed all over Chaldea and Assyria, and being there intermixed with the people of the land, had their main converse with them, and therefore were forced to learn their language, and this soon induced a disuse of their own among them; by which means it came to pass, that after their return, the common people, especially those of them who had been bred up in thatcaptivity, understood not the Holy Scriptures in the Hebrew language, nor their posterity after them. And therefore when Ezra read the law to the people, (Neh. viii.,) he had several persons standing by him well skilled in both the Chaldee and the Hebrew languages, who interpreted to the people in Chaldee what he first read to them in Hebrew. And afterwards, when the method was established of dividing the law into fifty-four sections, and of reading one of them every week in their synagogues, (as hath been already described,) the same course of reading to the people the Hebrew text first, and then interpreting it to them in Chaldee, was still continued. For when the reader had read one verse in Hebrew, an interpreter standing by did render it in Chaldee; and then the next verse being read in Hebrew, it was in like manner interpreted in the same language as before; and so on from verse to verse, was every verse alternatively read, first in Hebrew and then interpreted in Chaldee, to the end of the section; and this first gave occasion for the making of Chaldee versions for the help of these interpreters. And they thenceforth became necessary not only for their help in the public synagogues, but also for the help of the people at home in their families, that they might there have the Scriptures for their private reading in a language which they understood.”
After further showing how this practice was perpetuated in the public services of the synagogues, first in respect to the law, and afterwards in respect to the prophetic and other Scriptures; and that as copies of the Scriptures both for public and private use were multiplied, and the number of synagogues increased, the Chaldee version was reduced to writing, and read alternately with the Hebrew, and finally, as he supposeswas done in the time of our Saviour, read without and in place of the Hebrew, he proceeds to describe the several Targums which have come down to the present time. Of these, the two which are most esteemed are those of Onkelos on the Pentateuch, and Jonathan on the Prophets, which are supposed to have been copied or essentially derived by them from the earlier and well-accredited versions, and to have been written or edited about the same time, and not long before the commencement of the Christian era. The Targum of Onkelos, he observes, is rather a version than a paraphrase, for it renders the Hebrew text word for word. But Jonathan, he adds, takes on him the liberty of a paraphrast.
Of these Targums, and others of a later date, it is known that they exhibit or construe the predictions concerning the Messiah in the same way as is done by Christians. That of Onkelos in particular, which is held to be the most ancient and the purest, and from which Prideaux supposes our Saviour to have quoted in several instances, which he specifies, is remarkable in this respect. And if, as is supposed, it represents literally or substantially the version which originated under the superintendence of Ezra, when, from the long disuse of the Hebrew Scriptures and the ignorance of the people generally of their meaning, it was of the first necessity to their instruction and reformation to explain the import and reference of the Divine names and titles in the books of Moses, where the prophets and church of preceding ages understood them to designate the PersonalWord; then the frequent insertion, before the names Jehovah and Elohim, of the termMemraas equivalent to Logos, is a reliable exposition and attestation of the faith of Ezra and his predecessors. And, apparently, every consideration is in favor of this view of the case.The word in question is inserted before the words Jehovah and Elohim where the creation is asserted, so that the act is affirmed of theWord, or theWordElohim, or theWordJehovah Elohim; for which no reason can be assigned or justification offered, unless the personal reference was the same as that of John in ascribing the creation to the Logos. By a like insertion the giving of the law to Moses at mount Sinai is ascribed to theWordElohim; speaking to him face to face, to theWordJehovah; and in numerous other instances, where personal acts are affirmed, and where the personal reference necessarily includes the added as well as the original designation. If this was done by Ezra, then he did but add what the circumstances of his time required to the example of Moses, who sometimes referred to the delegatedOne, the personalWord, by the single terms, Jehovah and Elohim, and at others by the compound designations, Melach Jehovah and Melach Elohim. In his case, uniformity in this respect was rendered unnecessary, and diversity intelligible, by the prevalent sentiment, knowledge, and usage of the people. On the contrary, in the other case, the ignorance and disuse of the original Hebrew, on the part of the people, rendered it necessary, first in the oral translation and exposition, and afterwards in the written versions of the sacred books, to insert, at appropriate places, a term adapted, like Logos in the Greek, to suggest, or by definition and use to receive and fix the requisite meaning as a designation.
There is in the nature of the case a very strong probability that the practice of inserting this expository term in the Chaldee versions was originally sanctioned by higher authority than any that we have notice of, after the time of Ezra, or that of Malachi, who is bysome supposed to have been the same person as Ezra, and by others to have been contemporary. Of all people, the Jews were the least likely to receive and adopt such an exposition in relation to the Divine names, without the prescription and sanction of a prophet. The supposition of its having originated and been brought into use and favor at a later period is wholly improbable, whether considered in relation to the nature and tendency of the practice, or to the condition of the Jews down to the time of our Saviour. It is, in itself, far more probable that the devout Jews during the captivity in Babylon, with Ezekiel, who had visions of the Personal Word in the likeness of man, and who appears sometimes, if not often, to refer to Him by the Hebrew termDabar, answering to the ChaldeeMemra, Word, or Revealer; with Daniel, who had visions of the same delegated one, in the same form; and with Ezra and other of their disciples of the sacerdotal and prophetic order, held the same faith as the prophets and patriarchs of earlier times, concerning the person, agency, and manifestations of the Messiah; recognized him under the same designations, and, on their return to Jerusalem, adopted, under the guidance of Ezra, an additional title, rendered necessary to the common people by their disuse of Hebrew, and their use of another language, which was thenceforth to be their vulgar tongue.
And if not, from the circumstances of the case, to be assumed as needing no confirmation, it is at least probable in the highest degree that the Great Revealer would in such a way provide for the maintenance and perpetuity of a church of true worshippers, holding the doctrines and the faith of the patriarchs and prophets concerning his person, and the manifestations and titlesby which he was known to them; a succession of devout, instructed, and faithful worshippers, who, at whatever time his advent might take place, would, on his appearance in a form answering to that in which Abraham and others saw him, be ready and waiting, like Simeon and Anna, to see and to proclaim their recognition of him.
The weight of this probability is greatly enhanced by the consideration, that the earlier and principal agencies and instrumentalities by which those doctrines and that faith had been maintained were discontinued prior to the deportation of the Jews and the destruction of their temple, and were never afterwards renewed. For, previous to these events, Jehovah in the similitude of man, radiant in appearance as the brightness of amber and of fire, appeared to Ezekiel at his place of exile, and in vision transported him to Jerusalem. And having exhibited to his astonished gaze the utter desecration of every part of the temple by the most impious and loathsome abominations of idolatry; and having notified him of the tokens by which the remnant of true worshippers was to be discriminated, and how they were to be preserved; and predicted that restoration which is yet future; and shown for his own conviction and that of the captives on his report to them, the grounds and reasons of his righteous judgments upon the rest; and finally having passed from the interior of the temple to the threshold, and assumed the glorious form, with the cherubic accompaniments, in which he had appeared by the river of Chebar, (chap. i.,) “he departed from off the threshold of the house, and,” in the sight of the prophet, “mounted up from, the earth,” and afterwards “went up from the midst of the city,” (rather, from over the city,) “and stood upon the mountain which is on the east side of the city.” “So,” adds Ezekiel, “the vision that I had seen went up from me.” Ezekiel, chap. viii.—xi.
Ezekiel was one of the captives carried to Babylon with Jehoiachin, B. C. 600. Jehoiachin was the last who in due succession sat on the throne of David. He was deposed by Nebuchadnezzar, who placed Zedekiah on the throne as his own viceroy and vassal.
No one of the family of David ever afterwards reigned over Judah. The theocratic viceroyalty ceased; the temporal kingdom of the house of David was dissolved. Jehovah, being rejected by his covenant people, and idolatry substituted for his worship, forsook his temple, discontinued his former theocratic relation, ceased to manifest himself in the Shekina, and turned to execute wrath upon Judah and Israel for their idolatrous abominations, and upon the surrounding nations whose idols they worshipped, and by whom they had been seduced and oppressed.
This signal procedure was the sequel of many clear and emphatic predictions, and a long course of discipline tending to restrain the whole house of Israel, and more especially the house of Judah, from total apostasy and alienation; and its occurrence is distinctly noted by the prophets.
The reformation and reign of Hezekiah were succeeded by unprecedented abominations of idolatry during the reign of Manasseh his son. “He built up again the high places which Hezekiah his father had destroyed; and he reared up altars for Baal; and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served them. And he built altars in the house of the Lord, of which the Lord said, In Jerusalem will I put my name. And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of thehouse of the Lord. And he made his son pass through the fire, and observed times, and used enchantments, and dealt with familiar spirits and wizards: he wrought much wickedness in the sight of the Lord, [his presence in the Shekina,] to provoke him to anger. And he set a graven image of the grove [i. e., the pillar or statue] that he had made, in the house of the Lord,” probably within the veil confronting the Shekina. He seduced the people “to do more evil than did the nations whom the Lord destroyed before the children of Israel. And the Lord spake by his servants the prophets, saying: Because Manasseh King of Judah hath done these abominations, and hath done wickedly above all that the Amorites did which were before him, and hath made Judah also to sin with his idols, therefore thus saith the Lord God of Israel: Behold, I am bringing such evil upon Jerusalem and Judah, that whosoever heareth of it, both his ears shall tingle. And I will stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria, and the plummet of the house of Ahab; and I will wipe Jerusalem as a man wipeth a dish, wiping it, and turning it upside down. And I willforsakethe remnant of mine inheritance, and deliver them into the hand of their enemies; and they shall become a prey and a spoil to all their enemies.” 2 Kings xxi. and 2 Chron. xxxiii.
Manasseh was succeeded by Amon his son, “who did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, and walked in all the ways that his father walked in, and served the idols that his father served, and worshipped them.” 2 Kings xxi. In the next reign, that of Josiah, a general reformation was wrought, and idolatry and its monuments were temporarily put away. “Notwithstanding, the Lord turned not from the fierceness of his greatwrath, wherewith his anger was kindled against Judah, because of all the provocations that Manasseh had provoked him withal. And the Lord said, I will remove Judah also out of my sight, as I have removed Israel, and will cast off this city Jerusalem which I have chosen, andthe houseof which I said, My name shall be there.” 2 Kings xxiii.
On the death of Josiah, the people set up his son Jehoahaz to be king, who did “evil in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his fathers had done.” And at the end of three months he was deposed by the King of Egypt, who placed in his stead as his vassal, another son of Josiah, whose name he changed from Eliakim to Jehoiakim, probably in derision, substituting the initial of the name Jehovah for that of the name Elohim, to indicate his assumed triumph over the peculiar God of the Jewish people.
Jehoiakim “did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his fathers had done.” From him the kingdom passed to his son Jehoiachin, who at the end of three months was vanquished by the King of Babylon and carried captive with the princes, officers, and most of the people, and the treasures of the temple. The kingdom was thus broken up. Nebuchadnezzar, however, left Zedekiah as his vassal in charge of Jerusalem. Under him, notwithstanding the impending destruction of the city and temple, “the chief of the priests and the remaining people transgressed very much after all the abominations of the heathen, and polluted the house of the Lord which he had hallowed in Jerusalem. They mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and misused his prophets, until the wrath of the Lord rose against his people tillthere was no remedy;” and they were subdued, the temple and city burnt, and the wall of Jerusalem broken down. 2 Chron. xxxvi.
The formal abdication and abandonment of the throne of David was consummated by the seizure and captivity of Jehoiachin. “As I live, saith the Lord, though Coniah [Jehoiachin] the son of Jehoiakim King of Judah were the signet upon my right hand, yet would I pluck thee thence.” “O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord, Write ye this man childless, a man that shall not prosper in his days: for no man of his seed shall prosper, sitting upon the throne of David, and ruling any more in Judah. Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteousBRANCH, and a king shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely; and this is his name whereby he shall be called,The Lord our Righteousness.” Jer. xxiii. So, before the capture and exile of Jehoiachin, it was announced of Jehoiakim his father, “He shall have none to sit upon the throne of David; and his dead body shall be cast out in the day to the heat, and in the night to the frost. And I will punish him and his seed, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem and the men of Judah.” Jer. xxxvi.
Thus Jehovah in the most public and formal manner forsook and withdrew from the temple, and terminated the theocracy; the procedure being attended by visible exhibitions, and verbal explanations and announcements intelligible to Ezekiel, and adapted to qualify him to vindicate it to the captives, and to forewarn them of the inflictions and desolations which were to follow. Accordingly, neither the Shekina nor any tokens of theDivine presence there afterwards appeared. When the structure was demolished by the Chaldeans, the altar and all the interior furniture was destroyed or removed, and never again recovered. In the new erection under Cyrus, when dedicated, and ever after, the ark of the covenant and the mercy-seat upon it, the Shekina, the Urim and Thummim, the holy fire upon the altar, and the spirit of prophecy, were irrecoverably wanting. The construction which was substituted for the original ark had neither the tables of the law nor any of its other contents, nor any visible glory over it, nor oracles proceeding from it. The Divine presence, always before visible in a cloud over the mercy-seat, returned no more. An imitation altar was erected, but the fire which came down from heaven upon the altar in the tabernacle, and again at the dedication of the first temple, had been extinguished, and was not again restored. Jehovah, officially, as prophet, priest, and king, had withdrawn, not to reäppear till he should come, the Messenger of the Covenant, in fulfilment of Malachi’s prediction.
The new structure therefore was, at least to all but those whose worship was purely and eminently spiritual, a cold, cheerless, and dark arena of formal and wearisome rites and ceremonies; a lifeless round of irksome forms, without any visible tokens of the Divine presence, or of Divine recognition or acceptance; any oracular responses, any fire from heaven, or other vindications, confirmations, or sanctions of the doctrines or faith professed or signified by the services and offerings of the worshippers.
Hence the degeneracy, formalism, and hypocrisy which subsequently characterized the temple worship, as recorded by Malachi and his contemporaries, and in the later history of the Jews down to ourSaviour’s time; their separation into discordant sects; the renunciation by the mass of them of the divine Mediator and the doctrine of Mediation, and their adoption exclusively of the doctrine of theUnity, as held by them to this day; and the necessity, in order to the maintenance among the true worshippers of the doctrines and faith of the patriarchs and prophets, of providing and perpetuating in their vulgar tongue such expositions as were furnished by the Chaldee paraphrasts.
A further confirmation to the same effect might be deduced from a consideration of the results of the scheme of reformation ascribed to Zoroaster towards the close of the Babylonish exile, whereby he hoped to unite the Jews with the Chaldeans, Persians, &c., in one sect, by purging the Magian system of worship from idolatry, restoring it to what he held to be its primitive purity, and combining with it the doctrine of one supreme creative intelligence, the doctrine of a resurrection, and other tenets of the Jews which might be incorporated in a system that neither taught nor admitted a Mediator, or any doctrine of Divine or creature mediation. This artful scheme, which was more or less successful at the time, and which, among those Jews of Babylon and the provinces who did not return to Palestine, may be traced down for centuries in the history of Oriental Gnosticism, obviously furnished a further reason for guarding the true worshippers, after the period of exile and the cessation of prophetic gifts, by such means as the Chaldee versions furnish.
Let it be further observed, as not unworthy of particular notice, that the Samaritans, from the very commencement of their history, and of their rivalship and hostility to the Jews, and the erection of their temple on Mount Gerizim, simultaneously with that of the restored Jewsat Jerusalem, received and used no portion of the sacred writings then extant, except the books of Moses; and that they perseveringly rejected all traditions, and all glosses and comments on the original text. And yet from the saying of the Samaritan woman, “I know that Messiah cometh; (that is,the Christ, the Anointed;) when he is come, he will teach us all things,” it would seem that, down to our Saviour’s time, they understood the true doctrine concerning his person, his incarnation, and the titles by which he would be distinguished. When told that he who was then present in the form of man, and who spoke to her, was the Messiah, she manifested no surprise or doubt. Many of the Samaritans believed in him on her testimony. “And many more believed because of what they heard from himself,” and said, “We know that this is truly the Saviour of the World, the Messiah.” (Campbell.)
Now, since they held no intercourse with the Jews, and, from prejudice and hostility, would learn nothing from them; and since they received only the Pentateuch and rejected all traditions, it would seem that they must from the beginning of their history have understood the Mosaic writings to teach those doctrines, and from continual study of them as the only source of their religious knowledge, hopes and expectations, must have perpetuated the sentiments with which they originally received them.
“That the sentiments of the woman who conversed at the well with Christ were the same with those of the Samaritans in general, will not admit of a doubt; for from whence could a common person like her have obtained the information she discovers on several points relating to the Messiah, unless from popular traditions current amongst those of her own nation? These sentiments then furnish us with a strong argument in answer to those who contend that the more ancient Hebrews entertained no expectation of a Messiah, but that this hope first, sprang up amongst the Jews some short time before the coming of our Saviour. So deep and inveterate was the enmity which subsisted between the Jews and the Samaritans, that it is utterly incredible that a hope of this kind should have been communicated from either of them to the other. It necessarily follows, therefore, that as both of them were, at the time of our Saviour’s birth, looking for the appearance of a Messiah from above, they must have derived the expectation from one common source, doubtless the books of Moses and the discipline of their ancestors; and consequently that this hope was entertained long before the Babylonish captivity, and the rise of the Samaritans. I mention only the books of Moses, because it is well known that the Samaritans did not consider any of the other writings of the Old Testament as sacred or of Divine original; and it is therefore not at all likely that any information which they might possess respecting the Messiah that was to come should have been drawn from any other source. In the discourse of the Samaritan woman, we likewise discover what were the sentiments of the ancient Hebrews respecting the Messiah. The expectation of the Jews at the time of our Saviour’s coming was, as we have seen, directed towards a war-like leader, a hero, an emperor, who should recover for the oppressed posterity of Abraham their liberty and rights; but the Samaritans, as appears from the conversation of this woman, looked forward to the Messiah in the light of a spiritual teacher and guide, who should instruct them in a more perfect and acceptable way of serving God than that which they then followed. Now theSamaritans had always kept themselves entirely distinct from the Jews, and would never consent to adopt any point of doctrine or discipline from them; and the consequence was, that the ancient opinion respecting the Messiah had been retained in much greater purity by the former than by the Jews, whose arrogance and impatience under the calamities to which they were exposed, had brought them by degrees to turn their backs on the opinions entertained by their forefathers on this subject, and to cherish the expectation that, in the Messiah promised to them by God, they should have to hail an earthly prince and deliverer. Lastly, I think it particularly deserving of attention, that it is clear from what is said by this woman, that the Samaritans did not consider the Mosaic Law in the light of a permanent establishment, but expected that it would pass away, and its place be supplied by a more perfect system of discipline on the coming of the Messiah. For when she hears our Saviour predict the downfall of the Samaritan as well as the Jewish religion, instead of taking fire at his words, and taxing him, after the Jewish manner, with blasphemy against God and against Moses, (Acts vi. 13-15,) she answers with mildness and composure that she knew the Messiah would come, and was not unapprised that the religion of her ancestors would then undergo a change.” (Mosheim, Int. Com. chap. 2.)
The Jews, on the contrary, as is hereafter more particularly observed, had renounced the Divine Mediator and the entire doctrine of mediation between God and man. They did not expect the promised Messiah in the character of Mediator, but, holding no distinction of persons in the Godhead, they gloried in the doctrine of theUnity; believed the Mosaic Law and institutions would be perpetual, and trusted to their observance of them for salvation. It were easy to multiply citations to show that they still entertain those views. A single instance may suffice. In the London Jewish Chronicle for May, 1852, the chief Rabbi of the great synagogue, in a sermon on the first day of the Feast of Weeks, is quoted as saying: “A man who has a royal patron, when in distress applies first to the Minister, to know if an audience will be granted; but with respect to God, if man is in trouble he wants no Mediator, or angels, but calls to God alone, and he shall be heard. And this cheering belief in the unity of God is quieting to the mind.”
Citations from the Chaldee Paraphrases.
The earliest Chaldee paraphrases which have been handed down are supposed to have been compiled or written about the time of the first advent, when the true worshippers may be supposed to have been anxious to revive and spread abroad the knowledge of them in such manner as to induce the Jews of that period to recognize the Messiah in the incarnate Word. The following testimonies from those writings of the sentiments of the Jewish Church concerning the Messiah as understood by them to be revealed in the ancient Scriptures, and his identity with the Messenger Jehovah, are, for the sake of his comments, taken from Faber’sHoræ Mosaicæ:
“When the text reads,They heard the voice of the LordGod walking in the garden, the Targums explain the passage to mean:They heard theWordof the Lord God walking;or, somewhat more fully,they heard the voice of theWordof the Lord God walking. In point of grammatical construction, even the modern Jews allow that the participlewalkingagrees with the voice, and not withthe Lord God. But walking is the attribute of a person. Therefore the Targums rightly gave the sense of the original when they introduced theWordas the judge of our first parents.”
The exclamation of Eve, I have gotten a man from the Lord, they render, “I have obtained the man, the angel of Jehovah!Now, sinceJehovahis the word used in the original, it is difficult to account for this paraphrastic exposition, unless we conclude that, at the time when it was written, the Jews believed the angel of Jehovah to be himself Jehovah, and expected him to be born incarnate.”
“To this opinion we shall the rather incline, if we attend to another paraphrastic interpretation. The sacred text reads:In that day shall Jehovah of hosts be for a crown of glory, and for a diadem of beauty unto the residue of his people. But the Targum of Jonathan reads:In that day shall the Messiah of Jehovah of hosts be for a crown of glory. Jonathan, however, could never have thus explained the passage, unless he had believed that the future Messiah would be Jehovah incarnate; nor would he have hazarded so extraordinary an interpretation, unless he had been fully conscious of speaking the general sentiments of his contemporaries. It is well known that the Jews so highly venerate the Targum of this writer, as to deem it something divine; yet we see that Jonathan identifies the Messiah with Jehovah himself. The doctrine in question still prevailed among the Jewsat the time when Justin Martyr flourished, as is manifest from his direct appeal to Trypho.If we produce to them,says he,those scriptures formerly rehearsed to you, which expressly show that the Messiah is both subject to suffering, and yet is the adorable God, they are under a necessity of acknowledging that these respect the Christ. So that while they assert that Jesus is not the Christ, they still confess that the Christ Himself shall come, and suffer, and reign, and be the adorable God: which conduct of theirs is truly most absurd and contradictory.I need scarcely remark, that Justin could never have hazarded such language to a Hebrew antagonist, unless he knew that he had very good ground for what he said.
“But to return to the Targums, where the text reads:Let not God speak with us, lest we die, the interpretation of Onkelos runs,Let not the Word from before the Lord speak with us. So likewise where the text reads,She called the name of Jehovah that spake unto her, Thou God seest me, the Targum of Jonathan runs,She confessed before the Lord Jehovah, whose Word had spoken unto her. And the Targum of Jerusalem,She confessed and prayed to the Word of the Lord who had appeared to her. Now the person who appeared to Hagar was the angel of Jehovah. The paraphrasts therefore identifythe Word and the Angel. Hence it is plain that by the Word of God they do not mean a speech uttered by God, but that they use the term to express a real person. By this personal Word they understood the Messiah; as is evident from Jonathan’s interpretation of the text,Jehovah said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand. He explains its purport to be,Jehovah said unto his Word. But it is manifest from our Saviour’s conversation with the Pharisees relative to the nature and parentage of the Messiah, that they acknowledge this text to relateto him; and it appears from the Midrash Tillim that such an application is fully recognized by the Jewish Rabbins. Hence the inference is inevitable, that the Hebrew doctors confess the Messiah to be the Word of God or the angel of Jehovah. And hence we shall at once perceive why St. John so pointedly bestows the title upon his divine Master. He did but employ the usual phraseology of his countrymen respecting the promised Messiah; yet, by applying the name of Jesus of Nazareth, he at once declared him to be the Messiah, and that angel of Jehovah who was confessedly the God both of the Patriarchal and of the Levitical Church.
“Agreeably to this obvious conclusion, the Targums exhibit the Word with all the characteristics of the expected Messiah.
“They describe him as the Mediator between God and man.
“Thus, in paraphrasing a text from Deuteronomy iv. 7, Jonathan writes:God is near in the name of the Word of Jehovah; in paraphrasing a text of Hosea iv. 9,God will receive the prayer of Israel by his Word, and have mercy upon them, and will make them by his Word like a beautiful fig tree. And in paraphrasing a text of Jeremiah xxix. 14:I will be sought by you in my Word, and I will be inquired of by you through my Word.Thus likewise where Abraham is said by Moses to havecalled on the name of Jehovah the everlasting God, he is described by the Targum of Jerusalem aspraying in the name of the Word of Jehovah, the God of the world.
“They speak of him as making atonement for sin.
“Thus, in paraphrasing a text of Deuteronomy, (xxxii. 43,) Jonathan writes:God will atone by his Word for his land and for his people, even a people saved by the Word of Jehovah.
“They exhibit him as a Redeemer.
“Thus the text from Genesis xlix. 18,I have waited for thy salvation, O Jehovah, is paraphrased as follows in the Jerusalem Targum:Our father Jacob said thus: My soul expects not the redemption of Gideon the son of Joash, which is a temporal salvation; nor the redemption of Samson, which is a transitory salvation; but the redemption which thou didst promise should come through thy Word to thy people. This salvation my soul waits for.Thus the same text is paraphrased by Jonathan with a direct application to the Messiah; whence again we find it to be the established doctrine of the ancient Hebrew Church, that the Messiah and the Word were the same person. Our father Jacob said:I do not expect the deliverance of Gideon the son of Joash, which is a temporal salvation; nor that of Samson the son of Manoah, which is a transient salvation; but I expect the redemption of Messiah the son of David, who shall come to gather to himself the children of Israel.
“The Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan were written immediately before the time of Christ, and among the Jews they are in such high esteem, that they hold them to be of the same authority with the original text. Of this extravagant honor the ground is, that those two interpreters committed to writing the ancient oral traditions, which [they supposed] had come down in regular descent from their first communication to Moses on the top of Mount Sinai.
“Such an opinion proves at least the high antiquity of the sentiments contained in those Targums; and, as the Targums themselves were composed before the Christian era, they must clearly be viewed as exhibiting the doctrine of the Levitical Church ere an inveteratehatred of the gospel led to a suppression or concealment of the ancient faith.
“The later Targums were written subsequent to the time of our Lord; but so far as regards the present argument, their importance is not the less on that account. Those of Onkelos and Jonathan show the tenets of the Hebrew ChurchbeforeChrist; those which are later prove, by their accordance with their predecessors, that the same doctrine continued in full force during the first centuriesafterthe Christian era. Thus, notwithstanding Jesus of Nazareth was denied to be the Messiah, the Jews,” [meaning of course the old school, orthodox party,] “it is plain from the written evidence of the later Targums, did not immediately depart from the sentiments of their forefathers relative tothe characterof the Messiah.”
After quoting testimonies from different Jewish Rabbins, he observes: “The reason why the Rabbins pronounced the Messiah to be Jehovah, was this: Following the ancient Targums, which spoke the universally received doctrines of theHebrewChurch, they perceived, like the authors of those Targums, that the Messiah was the same person as the anthropomorphic Word, or Angel of Jehovah. But they knew that the Angel of Jehovah was the God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob. And they were assured that their pious forefathers did not idolatrously worship a creature, but that they venerated the self-existent God, Jehovah. Hence they rightly determined thatJehovahwasthe name of the Messiah. This will appear very distinctly, if we attend to their doctrine respecting the great angel whom they cabalistically denominated Metraton.” (Vol. 2, sec. 1, chap. iii.)
The reader will observe that this author construes the formulas Melach Jehovah, Memra Jehovah, &c., in the same way as our translation, Angelofthe Lord, Wordofthe Lord, &c.; and while correctly holding that the Angel or Messenger, and the Logos, Memra, or Word, are personally identical with Jehovah, still indicates a distinction, as though the former persons were sent by the latter. This is undoubtedly inconsistent and unauthorized. Had he in his construction left out the prepositionof, as the original does, all would have been clear.
The following extracts are corrected from Dr. J. P. Smith’s work, The Scripture Testimony to the Messiah.
Onkelos renders Jacob’s prediction of Shiloh, Gen. xlix., “The Messiah whose is the kingdom.” The Jerusalem Targum, “The King Messiah whose is the kingdom.” Jonathan on Sam. xxiii. 1-7: “The God of Israel spoke with respect to me; the Rock of Israel, the Sovereign of the sons of men, the true Judge, hath spoken to appoint me King; forHe is the Messiahthat shall be, who shall arise and rule in the fear of the Lord.” The Chaldee and other Targums generally refer the 2d Psalm to the Messiah. Also the 45th Psalm, v. 2: “Thy beauty, O King Messiah, is preëminent above the sons of men.” Jonathan renders Isaiah xxiii. 5: “Behold, the days are coming, saith the Lord, when I will raise up to David the Messiah of the Righteous, and he shall reign,” &c. And xxxiii. 15: “In those days and in that time, I will raise up to David the Messiah of righteousness,” &c. And Micah v. 1: “And thou, Bethlehem, out of thee shall proceed in my presence the Messiah to exercise sovereignty over Israel, whose name has been called from eternity, from the days of the everlasting period.” Zech. iii. 8: “Behold, I bring forth my servant theMessiah, and he shall be revealed.” And vi. 12: “Behold a man, Messiah is his name, ready that he may be revealed and may spring forth, and may build the temple of Jah.”