II. The Kingly, Nationalistic Type of Messianic Hope. The messianic prophecies of the Old Testament seem only confusing and contradictory until the three distinct types are recognized. These different types of messianic prophecy naturally shade into each other, and yet they are fundamentally distinct and were represented throughout Israel's history by different classes of thinkers. The first is the kingly, nationalistic type of hope. It came into existence as soon as Israel became a nation, and may be traced in the Balaam oracles in Numbers 24:17-19, where the seer is represented as beholding Israel's victorious king smiting its foes, the Moabites and Edomites, and ruling gloriously over a triumphant people. It is echoed in II Samuel 7:10-16 in the promise that the house of David should rule peacefully and uninterruptedly through succeeding generations. Ezekiel, in his picture of the restored nation in 37:21-28, declares in the name of Jehovah that "my servant David shall be king over them and they shall dwell in the land that I have given to my servant Jacob wherein their fathers dwelt, and they shall dwell therein, they and their sons forever, and David my servant shall be their prince forever." In such passages as Isaiah 9 and 11 the Davidic ruler is represented as reigning not despotically or selfishly, but in accordance with the principles of justice and mercy, bringing peace to all his subjects. As has already been noted, in the prophecies of Haggai and Zechariah and in connection with the rebuilding of the second temple Israel's kingly, nationalistic hope reached its culmination, but through the victories of Darius was rudely cast to the ground (Section XCV:vi). For the next three centuries and a half, throughout the Persian and Greek periods, this type of Israel's messianic hope was apparently silenced. The Maccabean struggles and victories, however, and the oppressive rule of Rome stirred this smouldering hope into a flame and gave it wide currency among the people at the beginning of the Christian era. Again the nation came to the forefront. In the beautiful prophecy of Zechariah 9:9, 10, which apparently comes from the earlier part of the Maccabean era, is found the noble picture of a peasant king, humble yet victorious, establishing with the sword a world-wide kingdom. Memories of the glorious achievements of the Maccabean leaders kindled the popular imagination. When in 63 B.C. Rome's iron hand closed upon Palestine, the eyes of the Jews looked expectantly for the advent of a champion like David of old, who would crush the heathen, convict the sinful Jews, and gather the faithful people, ruling over them in justice and with tender care. These hopes are most plainly expressed in the Psalms of Solomon, which were written near the beginning of the Roman period. These expectations in their more material form inspired the party of the Zelots during the earlier part of the first Christian century repeatedly to unsheathe the sword in the vain effort to overthrow Rome and to establish at once the rule of the Messiah. It was because this type of hope was so strong in the minds of the common people that the false messiahs who rose from time to time were able quickly to gather thousands about them in the vain expectation that the moment of deliverance had at last arrived.
III. The Apocalyptic, Catastrophic Type of Messianic Hope. Another class of thinkers in Israel looked not for a temporal but for a supernatural kingdom. It is usually described in the symbolic language of the apocalypse. The inauguration of this kingdom was not dependent upon man's activity but solely upon the will of God. The exact time and manner of its institution was clothed in mystery. Traces of this belief are found in the references in Amos to the popular expectations regarding the day of Jehovah. Evidently the Northern Israelites lived in anticipation of a great universal judgment day, in which their heathen foes would be suddenly destroyed and they themselves would be exalted. It was a belief which Amos and the ethical prophets who followed him strongly combated, for they were fully aware of the fundamental weakness in the apocalyptic or catastrophic type of prophecy: it took away from the nation and individual all personal responsibility. Furthermore, its roots went back to the old Semitic mythology. This type of hope, however, was too firmly fixed in the popular mind to be dispelled even by the preaching of Israel's greatest prophets. As a result of the calamities that gathered about the fall of the Hebrew state it was revived. It is found in Ezekiel, Zechariah, and Joel. Each of these prophets looked forward to the time when Jehovah would miraculously overthrow their heathen foes, restore his scattered people, and establish for them a world-wide, eternal kingdom. In the closing chapters of the book of Daniel this form of belief attains its fullest expression in the Old Testament. In the Similitudes of Enoch (37-71), which come either from the latter part of the Maccabean era or else from the days of Herod, these messianic hopes are still further developed. Instead of Israel's guardian angel Michael, represented as coming on the clouds from heaven and in appearance like a son of man, a heavenly Messiah is introduced. He is known by the title of the Messiah, the Elect One, and the Son of Man (probably taken from the book of Daniel). In Enoch the term Son of Man has evidently become, as in IV Esdras, the title of a personal Messiah. He is described as pre-existent and gifted with the divine authority. When he appears, the dead are to rise, and angels, as well as men, are to be tried before his tribunal. The sinners and the fallen angels he will condemn to eternal punishment. All sin and wrong shall be driven from the earth. Heaven and earth shall be transformed, and an eternal kingdom shall be established in which all the righteous, whether dead or living, shall participate. This was evidently the type of messianic hope held by the Pharisees as well as the Essenes. As the result of the teaching of the Pharisees it was held widely by the Jews of the first Christian century. It was clearly in the minds of Jesus' disciples when he made his last journey to Jerusalem. It was both the background and the barrier to all his work. It is the key to the interpretation of Paul's conception of the Christ, or the Messiah, for he had been educated a Pharisee. This apocalyptic type of messianic hope powerfully influenced the life and thought of the early Christian Church and even permeated the Gospel narratives. The question of how far Jesus himself was influenced by it is one of the most vital and difficult problems of early Christian history.
IV. The Ethical and Universalistic Type of Messianic Prophecy. Far removed from the kingly, messianic hopes of the people and the supernatural visions of the apocalypses were the plain, direct, practical ideals of Israel's great ethical prophets. Amos, Hosea, Isaiah, and Jeremiah all united in declaring that the realization of Jehovah's purpose in history depended primarily upon the response of his people. They regarded the kingdom of God as a natural growth. It represented the gradual transformation of the characters of men under the influence of God's truth and spirit working in their minds. They hoped and labored to see the nation Israel living in full accord with the demands of justice, mercy, and service. The II Isaiah, under the influences which grew out of the destruction of the temple and the closer contact with the heathen world, voiced this type of messianic hope in its broadest and most spiritualized form. He declared that the Israelites had been called and trained for a unique service and that that service was to be performed by them quietly and unostentatiously, as prophets and teachers of men. He also presented most clearly Israel's missionary ideal, and showed that its task was not to destroy but to bring light to the Gentile world. He and the more enlightened prophets who followed him saw an ever-widening kingdom established without the aid of the sword and freed from all racial barriers—the eternal, universal, spiritual kingdom of God on earth. It is evident that in contrast to the other types of messianic prophecy this form was comprehensible, practicable, and alone capable of realization.
V. The Messianic Hopes of Judaism at the Beginning of the Christian Era. Unfortunately, as a result of the varied experiences through which Judaism passed in the centuries immediately preceding the Christian era, its ethical and universal messianic hopes were largely eclipsed. The ideal of the suffering servant appears to have been almost forgotten. As the later Jews read the earlier scriptures of their race in order to determine what the future held in store for them, they fixed their eyes upon the kingly and apocalyptic prophecies. Regarding all scriptures as equally authoritative, they attempted the impossible task of blending these fundamentally different types of prophecy. The result was that their beliefs became, indeed, a complex labyrinth with paths leading in opposite directions. Later events have proved beyond question that these popular types were the dreams of religious enthusiasts rather than true pictures of the way in which the divine purpose was to be perfected in human history, and yet the apocalyptic type of prophecy was not without its significance. It tended to correct the narrow national hopes of the Jews and to lift them to the consideration of that which was spiritual and eternal. It also led them to appreciate the unity of all history, and in times of distress it kept alive their faith in a God who was wisely guiding their destinies. Underlying all these different types of prophecy is the appreciation of the broad truth that God was working out in the lives of men and nations a definite purpose, and that that purpose was good, and that the God back of all history was a God not only of power but also of love. It was inevitable that the ethical and more spiritual expectations of the early Hebrew prophets should find the fullest response in the heart and life of the Great Teacher. In the face of opposition from the leaders of his race, from the multitudes that gathered about him, and even from the disciples who loved and followed him, he proclaimed that the kingdom of God would not come by observation, but that its growth would be natural and gradual like that of the mustard seed, that it was not external but within the hearts of men, that membership in that kingdom depended not upon the arbitrary will of God, but upon men's acting in accord with that will in the every-day relations of life. Thus Jesus prepared the way for the complete fulfillment of all that was noblest and best in Israel's messianic hopes, and in his character and teachings far surpassed the highest expectations of the inspired teachers of his race.
APPENDIX
I
A PRACTICAL REFERENCE LIBRARY
Books for Constant Reference. The complete text of the biblical writings of the post-exilic period are found in Volumes II to VI of the Student's Old Testament. A careful, thorough résumé of the history is contained in Riggs's History of the Jewish People during the Maccabean and Roman Periods. Professor Bevan, in his Jerusalem Under the High Priests, presents, especially from the ecclesiastical point of view, a fresh survey of the history during the Greek and Maccabean periods. The geographical background may be studied either in George Adam Smith's Historical Geography of the Holy Land or in Kent's Biblical Geography and History.
Additional Books of Reference: Introductions and Commentaries. In addition to the standard Old Testament introductions by McFadyen, Cornill, and Driver, the collection of monographs in Professor Torrey's Ezra Studies will be found especially valuable. The introduction, as well as the critical notes, in the brief yet scholarly volumes of the New Century Bible are exceedingly useful for the general reader. More fundamental are the volumes in the International Critical Commentary. The introductions to the different books in Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible and the Encyclopedia Biblica are clear, concise, and written from the modern point of view.
Jewish and Contemporary History. The thorough student of this period will find a wealth of suggestive material in Smith's Old Testament History and in Schürer's monumental work, A History of the Jewish People in the Time of Jesus Christ. The later development of Israel's religion is presented in Marti's Religion of the Old Testament, in the first part of Toy's Judaism and Christianity, in Bousset's Judaism, and in Charles's Eschatology, Hebrew, Jewish and Christian. An excellent survey of the contemporary history of the period is to be found in the History of the Ancient World by Goodspeed or in Meyer's Ancient History. A more detailed treatment of the contemporary history will be found in the History of Greece by Curtius or by Holm. The History of Rome is fully traced in the monumental works of Mommsen or Gibbon or the more recent study in The Greatness and Decline of Rome by Ferrero. Briefer but equally reliable histories of Rome are those by Botsford, Horton, and Seignobos.