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; for He is the Messiah that 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 the Messiah, 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.”
The Jerusalem Targum, referring to Abraham when Jehovah appeared to him as a man, says: “The Word of Jehovah [Memra Jehovah] appeared to him in the Valley of Vision.” Jonathan on Isaiah xlviii. 12: “Obey my Word;” and 13: “Even by my Word I have founded the earth;” xlix. 16: “My Word will not reject thee.” Jer. xxix. 23: “Before me it is unveiled, and my Word is witness;” xxxi. 4: “For my Word is to Israel as a Father;” xxxii. 40: “My Word shall not turn away from following them to do them good, and my Word shall rejoice over them to do them good.” Ezek. xx. 12: “I gave them my Sabbath days, to be for a sign between my Word and them, that they may know that I am Jah who sanctify them.” The Targumists generally substitute the word Jah for Jehovah. Jonathan on Gen. v. 26: “That was the generation in whose days they began to apostatize, and made to themselves falsehoods, [or idols,] and named their falsehoods by the name of the Word of Jah.” Jer. Tar. on Exodus vi. 2: “And Jah was revealed by his Word to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.” Var. Tar. Isaiah xliii. 2: “In ancient time, when ye passed through the Red Sea, my Word was for your help;” xlv. 17: “Israel shall be delivered by the Word of Jah, with an everlasting deliverance;” v. 25: “By the Word of Jah shall all the seed of Israel be declared righteous, and shall glory;” lxiii. 8: “My people are they, sons who will not deal falsely; and his Word was their Redeemer;” v. 13: “He led them through the deep: the Word of Jah led them.” Jer. vi. 8: “Be admonished, O Jerusalem, lest my Word cast thee off.” Hosea xiv. 9: “I by my Word will accept the prayer of Israel.” Zach. vi. 7: “Not by force, nor by power, but by my Word, saith Jah of hosts. And he will reveal the Messiah whose name is spoken from eternity, and he shall reign over all kingdoms.”
The author quotes the following from Dr. Ryland and the Prolegomena to Walton’s Polyglot: “There are many passages of the Chaldee Paraphrasts which could have been derived only from the remains of the expositions and doctrines delivered by the prophets. They have many things concerning the Word of God, by whom the universe was created, &c., and which admirably confirm the declarations of St. John upon the Logos, and prove that in so designating the Messiah or Son of God, the Evangelist employed a name already in familiar use among the Jews, as received from their ancestors, though not perfectly understood by all among them. To this Word the Jerusalem Targum on Gen. i. 27 attributes creation: ‘The Word of the Lord created man.’ And xxxii. 22: ‘And the Word of the Lord said, Behold Adam whom I have created.’ Jonathan on Deut. xxxii. 39, says: ‘When will the Word of the Lord be manifested to redeem his people?’ The same Targum on Gen. xix. 24, ascribes to the Word of the Lord the sending down of sulphur and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah: “Sulphur and fire were sent down upon it from the Word of the Lord out of heaven.’ So likewise Onkelos: ‘And the Word of the Lord returned.’ And on Gen. v. 24: ‘Enoch was taken away by the Word before the Lord.’ So the Jerusalem, Deut. xviii. 19: ‘My Word will take vengeance upon him.’ So Onkelos and Jonathan. The passages are innumerable in which actions and properties are attributed to the Word of God, as a distinct Person.”
Again, quoting Owen as referred to by Ryland: “The Chaldee Paraphrast, observing that some especial presence of God is expressed in the words, Gen. iii. 8, renders them, ’And they heard the voice of the Word of the Lord God walking in the garden.’ So all the Targums. And that of Jerusalem begins the next verse accordingly: ‘And the Word of the Lord God called unto Adam.’ And this expression they afterwards make use of in places innumerable; and that in such a way as plainly to denote a distinct Person in the Deity. That this was their intention in it, is hence manifest; because about the time of the writing of the first of those Targums which gave the rule of speaking unto them that followed, it was usual amongst them to express their conceptions of the Son of God by the name of the Logos, or Word of God.” (Owen on Epist. Heb. Vol. 1.)
“At this time, there was nothing more common among the Hebrews than to denote the second subsistence of the Deity by the name of the Word of God. They were now divided into two great parts: first the inhabitants of Canaan, with the regions adjoining, and many old remnants in the East, who used the Syro-Chaldean language, being but one dialect of the Hebrew; and secondly, the dispersions under the Greek empire, who are commonly called Hellenists, and also used the Greek tongue. And both these sorts did usually, in their several languages, describe the second Person in the Trinity by the name of the Word of God. For the former sort, or those who used the Syro-Chaldean dialect, we have an eminent proof of it in the translation of the Scripture which, at least some part of it, was made about this time amongst them, commonly called the Chaldee Paraphrase; in the whole whereof the second Person is mentioned under the name of Memra dejeja, or the Word of God. Hereunto are all personal properties and all divine works in that translation assigned; with an illustrious testimony to the faith of the old Church concerning the distinct subsistence of a plurality of Persons in the Divine nature. And for the Hellenists who wrote and expressed themselves in the Greek tongue, they used the name Logos, the Word of God, to the same purpose: as I have elsewhere manifested out of the writings of Philo, who lived about this time, between the death of our Saviour and the destruction of Jerusalem.” (Owen, Vol. 2.)
It will be observed that in all the translations of the Targums, and in the comments of Ryland and Owen, the same usage is exhibited as in our translation, of making the Jehovah the genitive of the official appellative which precedes it. Hence the mystery and confusion which have so generally been thought to attend the official designations of the Old Testament. But if it be considered that in the use of the terms Logos, Dabar, and Memra, where a personal reference is intended, the abstract is put for the concrete, as Word for Revealer, so that where these words are coupled with Jehovah the reading should be The Revealer, or The Revealing Jehovah,—as in the case of Melach Jehovah, the reading should be, The Messenger, or The Sent or delegated Jehovah, or the Messenger who is Jehovah,—the use of those terms as personal designations will suggest no difficulty.
[CHAPTER XV.]
Reasons of the Failure of the modern versions of the Scriptures to exhibit clearly the Hebrew designations of the Messiah—The Masoretic Punctuation—Reference to the term Melach and the formula Melach Jehovah.