The common formula, "that it might be fulfilled," means that the event recorded took place in order that the purpose of God announced in the prophecy might be accomplished. The prophecy was not the main thing, but the purpose of God contained in it. For the accomplishment of this purpose, and thus of the prophecy which revealed it, God's truth was pledged. In the same way are to be understood the words of John (chap. 12:39, 40): "Therefore they could not believe because that Esaias saith again, He hath blinded their eyes," etc. The hinderance to their belief lay not in the prophecy, but in that which the prophecy announced.
6. Of the prophecies quoted, some refer immediately to Christ. Such are the following: "The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool" (Matt. 22:44, from Psa. 110:1); "The Lord sware and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek" (Heb. 7:21, from Psa. 110:4); "He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and like a lamb dumb before his shearer, so opened he not his mouth," etc. (Acts 8:32, 33, from Isa. 53:7, 8); "A Prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear," etc. (Acts 3:22, 23; 7:37, from Deut. 18:15, 18, 19).
7. Others refer ultimately to Christ, but under a type. An undeniable example is the following: "A bone of him shall not be broken" (John 19:36, from Exod. 12:46; Numb. 9:12); words originally spoken of the paschal lamb, which was the type of Christ, and now fulfilled in the great Antitype. Again, we read in Hosea (chap. 11:1): "When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt;" words which Matthew quotes as fulfilled in Christ (chap. 2:15). It was the purpose of God, namely, that the history of Israel, God's first-born son (Exod. 4:22, 23), in his national childhood, should foreshadow that of Jesus, the only begotten Son of God.
To the same class belongs apparently the following citation: "What is man, that thou art mindful of him? or the son of man, that thou visitest him? Thou madest him a little lower than the angels; thou crownedst him with glory and honor, and didst set him over the works of thy hands: thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet." Heb. 2:6-8, from Psa. 8:4-6. It seems impossible to deny that the immediate reference of the psalm is to man's exalted dignity and high prerogatives as the lord of this lower world. But, as the writer to the Hebrews argues, the words have no complete fulfilment in man considered apart from Christ. It is in the person of Christ alone that the high destiny of human nature finds its full realization. He is made Lord of all, and "crowned with glory and honor" for himself and for all his disciples also, who shall reign with him in glory for ever. We add one more example from Heb. 1:5, where the writer quotes and applies to Christ the words of Nathan to David: "I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son." 2 Sam. 7:14. The promise undeniably had immediate respect to Solomon; not to Solomon, however, in his simple personality, but to Solomon as the first after David of a line of kings that should end in Christ, in whom alone it has its true fulfilment. God took Solomon, and in him the whole line of kings on David's throne, into the relation of sonship, and thus of heirship. Rom. 8:17; Gal. 4:7. To Solomon, as God's son, the kingdom was confirmed for ever through Christ; and Solomon's lower sonship, moreover, adumbrated the higher sonship of the last and greatest of his sons, to whom the promise was: "He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: and he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end." Luke 1:32, 33.
To draw the exact line of separation between the two above named classes of citations is difficult, and in some cases perhaps impossible. Nor is it necessary, since the essential truth is, that all these prophecies find their accomplishment in Christ; those of the former class directly, those of the latter through types of divine appointment.
The exegesis of the New Testament quotations presents many difficult questions, relating partly to the true rendering of the original words, partly to the deviations of the Septuagint from the Hebrew, and the citations from both the Septuagint and the Hebrew; partly to the original application of the passages cited and the use made of them in the New Testament. For the details the student must be referred to the commentators. All that has been here attempted is a statement of the general principles that must govern us in interpreting the quotations from the Old Testament which are found in the New.
INDEX OF SUBJECTS.
N.B. THE FIGURES REFER TO THE PAGES.