Sons of 53 aversion to the perpetuation of the Idumean tyranny in the persons of the sons of Herod. Yet to those who contemplated only the political signs of the times, nothing remained but the degrading alternative, either to submit to the line of Herod, or to sink into a Roman province. Such was to be the end of their long ages of national glory, such the hopeless termination of the national independence. But, notwithstanding the progress of Grecian opinions and manners, with which the politic Herod had endeavoured to counterbalance the turbulent and unruly spirit of the religious party, the great mass of the people, obstinately wedded to the law and to the institutions of their fathers, watched with undisguised jealousy the denationalising proceedings of their king. This stern and inextinguish able enthusiasm had recently broken out into active resistance, in the conspiracy to tear down the golden eagle, which Herod had suspended over the gate of the Temple. The signal for this daring act had been a rumour of the king's death; and the terrific vengeance, which, under a temporary show of moderation, Herod had wreaked on the offenders, the degradation of the High-priest, and the execution of the popular teachers, who were accused of having instigated the insurrection, could not but widen the breach between the dying sovereign and the people. The greater part of the nation looked to the death of Herod with a vague hope of liberation and independence, which struck in with the more peculiar cause of excitement predominant in the general mind. For the principle of this universal ferment lay deeper Hist. of the Jews, vol. ii. p. 87. 54 GENERAL EXPECTATION OF THE MESSIAH. BOOK I. General of the Messiah. d than in the impatience of a tyrannical government, which burdened the people with intolerable expectation exactions, or the apprehension of national degradation if Judæa should be reduced to the dominion of a Roman proconsul. It was the confidence in the immediate coming of the Messiah, which was working with vague and mysterious agitation in the hearts of all orders. The very danger to which Jewish independence was reduced, was associated with this exalted sentiment; the nearer the ruin, the nearer the restoration of their Theocracy. For there is no doubt, that among other predictions, according to the general belief, which pointed to the present period, a very ancient interpretation of the prophecy, which declared that the sceptre, the royal dominion, should not depart from the race of Israel until the coming of the Shiloh, one of the titles uniformly attributed to the Messiah, connected the termination of the existing polity with the manifestation of the Deliverer.e This expectation of a wonderful d Whoever is curious in such inquiries will find a fearful catalogue of calamities which were to precede, according to the Rabbinical authorities, the coming of the Messiah, either in Lightfoot's Harmony, vol. v. p. 180 (8vo. edit.), or in Schoetgen, Horæ Hebraicæ, vol. ii. p. 509, or Eisenmenger, das entdecktes Judenthum, ii. p. 711. The notion may have been grounded on the last chapter of the Prophecy of Daniel. Compare Bertholdt, c. 13.-The Rabbins deliver, "In the first year of that week (of years), that the Son of David is to come, shall that be fulfilled, 'I will rain upon one city, but I will not shall be sent forth. The third, the • Casaubon Exercit. anti-Baron. ii. CHAP. II. NATURE OF THE BELIEF IN THE MESSIAH, 55 f revolution to be wrought by the sudden appearance of some great mysterious person, had been so widely disseminated, as to excite the astonishment, perhaps the jealousy of the Romans, whose historians, Suetonius and Tacitus, as is well known, bear witness to the fact. "Among many," writes the latter, "there was a persuasion, that in the ancient books of the priesthood it was written, that at this precise time, the East should become mighty, and that the sovereigns of the world should issue from Judæa." "In the East, an ancient and consistent opinion prevailed, that it was fated there should issue, at this time, from Judæa, those who should obtain universal dominion." h belief in the Yet no question is more difficult than to ascertain the origin, the extent, the character of this Nature of the belief, as it prevailed at the time of our Sa- Messiah. viour's coming;-how far it had spread among the surrounding nations; or how far, on the other hand, the original Jewish creed, formed from the authentic prophetical writings, had become impregnated with Oriental or Alexandrian notions. It is most probable, that there was no consistent, uniform, or authorised opinion on the subject. All was vague and indefinite; and in this vagueness and indefiniteness lay much of its power over the general mind. Whatever purer The Proor loftier notions concerning the great Deliverer phets. and Restorer might be imparted to wise and holy men, 2 Esdras, vi. 25. Tac. Hist. v. 13. h Suet. Ves. p. 4. The Jewish opinions concerning the Messiah have been examined with great diligence and accuracy by Pro fessor Bertholdt, in his Christologia Judæorum. Bertholdt is what may be called a moderate Rationalist. To his work, and to Lightfoot, Schoetgen, Meuschen, and Eisenmenger, I am indebted for most of my Rabbinical quotations. 56 TRADITION. BOOK I. in whatever sense we understand that "Abraham rejoiced to see the day" of the Messiah, the intimations on this subject in the earlier books of the Old Testament, though distinctly to be traced along its whole course, are few, brief, and occurring at long intervals. But from the time, and during the whole period of the Prophets, this mysterious Being becomes gradually more prominent. The future dominion of some great king, to descend from the line of David, to triumph over all his enemies, and to establish an universal kingdom of peace and happiness, of which the descriptions of the golden age in the Greek poets are but a faint and unimaginative transcript: the promise of the Messiah, in short, comes more distinctly forward. As early As early as the first chapters of Isaiah, he appears to assume a title and sacred designation, which at least approaches near to that of the Divinity; and in the later prophets, not merely does this leading characteristic maintain its place, but under the splendid poetical imagery, drawn from existing circumstances, there seems to lie hid a more profound meaning, which points to some great and general moral revolution, to be achieved by this mysterious Being. Tradition. k But their sacred books, the Law and the Prophets, were not the clear and unmingled source of the Jewish' opinions on this all-absorbing subject. Over this, as over the whole system of the Law, tradition had thrown a veil; and it is this traditionary notion of the Messiah, which it is necessary here to k Such is the opinion of Rosenmüller (on Isaiah ix. 5. Compare likewise, on Psalm xlv. 7). On a point much contested by modern scholars, Gesenius, in his note on the same passages, espouses the opposite opinion. Neither of these authors, it may be added, discusses the question on theological, but purely on historical and critical grounds. CHAP. II. FOREIGN CONNEXIONS OF THE JEWS. m 57 develope but from whence tradition had derived its apparently extraneous and independent notions, becomes a much more deep and embarrassing question. It is manifest from the Evangelic history," that although there was no settled or established creed upon the subject, yet there was a certain conventional language: particular texts of the sacred writings were universally recognised, as bearing reference to the Messiah; and there were some few characteristic credentials of his title and office, which would have commanded universal assent. nexions of There are two quarters from which the Jews, as they ceased to be an insulated people, confined in Foreign conthe narrow tract of Palestine, and by their the Jews. captivity and migrations became more mingled with other races, might insensibly contract new religious notions, the East and the West, Babylonia and Alexandria. The latter would be the chief, though not m Bertholdt, p. 8. The brief intimations in the Gospels are almost the only absolutely certain authorities for the nature of this belief, at that particular period, except, perhaps, the more genuine part of the Apocrypha. Josephus, though he acknowledges the existence and the influence of this remarkable feature in the national character, is either inclined to treat it as a popular delusion, or to warp it to his own purposes, its fulfilment in the person of Vespasian. For his own school, Philo is a valuable witness; but among the Alexandrian Jews, the belief in a personal Messiah was much more faint and indistinct than in Palestine. The Rabbinical books, even the oldest Targumin or comments on the Sacred Writings, are somewhat suspicious from the uncertainty of their date: still, in this as in other points of coincidence, where their expressions are similar to those of the Christian records, there seems so manifest an improbability that these should have been adopted after the two religions had assumed ar hostile position towards each other, that they may be fairly considered as vestiges of an earlier system of opinions, retained from ancient reverence, and indelible even by implacable animosity. It is far more likely that Christianity should speak the current language of the time, than that the Synagogue should interpolate their own traditionary records, with terms or notions borrowed from the Church. |
