How imposing is this argument! How plausible it appears! And yet it is irrelevant, as Dr. Priestly frankly confesses, who tries to save the credit of the apostle by the convenient principle of accommodation! The whole force of Peters reasoning depends upon the word corruption. David did see corruption; therefore, he could not mean himself, but being a prophet, &c., he meant Jesus Christ. Now, the whole of Peters argument is grounded upon two mistakes; for, 1st, the Hebrew word translated corruption, here signifies destruction, perdition; and in the next place, instead of being thy holy One, in the singular, it is in the Hebrew thy saints, in general. The passage is quoted from the 16th Psalm; and I will give a literal translation of it from the original, which will make the propriety or impropriety of Peters quotation perfectly obvious. The contents and import of the Psalm, according to the English version, are as follow; David, in distrust of his merits, and hatred of idolatry, fleeth to God for preservation, He showeth the hope of his calling, of the resurrection, and of life everlasting. And the passage in question, according to the original, reads thus:—I have set the Lord always before me: Because he is on my right hand, I shall not be moved: Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory [i. e., tongue] rejoiceth: My flesh also shall rest in hope. For thou wilt not leave my soul in Hades, neither wilt thou suffer thy saints to see destruction. Thou wilt show me the path of life: In thy presence is fullness of joy, and at thy right hand are pleasures for evermore. That is—Because I have ever trusted in thee, and experienced thy constant protection, therefore I will not fear death; because thou wilt not for over leave my soul in the place of departed spirits, nor suffer thy saints to perish from existence. Thou wilt raise me from the dead, and make me happy for ever in thy presence.#
In the 4th chap. of the Acts, the apostles are represented as praying to God, and referring in their prayer to the 2d Psalm why did the heathen rage," &c., as being a prophecy of the opposition of the Jews to Jesus; with how much justice may be seen from these circumstances.
1. That the nations, as it is in the original, did not assemble together to crucify Jesus, as this was done by a few soldiers. 2. The kings of the earth had no hand in it, for they knew nothing about it. And 3rdly, Those who were concerned did by no means form vain designs, since they effected their cruel purposes. And lastly, From that time to the present, God has not set Jesus as his king upon the holy hill of Sion, as the Psalm imports, nor given him the nations for his inheritance, nor the uttermost parts of the earth for a possession.
The next prophecy usually adduced to prove that Jesus is the Messiah, is The passage quoted from Micah v. 2, in the 2d chapter of Mat.—But from Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the chiefs of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me, that is, to be ruler in Israel, whose goings forth have been from old, from the days of hidden ages. This passage probably refers to the Messiah, but by no means signifies that this Messiah was to be born in Bethlehem, as asserted by Matthew; but only, that he was to be derived from Bethlehem, the city of Jesse, the father of David of famous memory, whose family was venerable for its antiquity, being of the days of hidden ages. And this interpretation is known, and acknowledged, by Hebrew scholars. But in order to cut short the dispute, w will permit the passage to be interpreted as signifying that Bethlehem was to be the birth place of the Messiah. What then? Will a mans being born in Bethlehem be sufficient to make him to be the Messiah foretold by the Hebrew prophets? Surely it has been made plain in the beginning of this work, that many more characteristic marks than this must meet in one person in order to constitute him the Messiah described by them!
In Zechariah ix. 9, it is written, Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Sion, Shout, O Daughter of Jerusalem! Behold thy king cometh unto thee, the righteous one, and saved, or preserved [according to the Hebrew] lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt, the foal of an ass. This has been applied by the evangelists to Jesus, who rode upon an ass into Jerusalem.
But in the first place, it is to be observed, that there seems to have been a blunder in this transaction; for according to the Hebrew idiom of the passage quoted above, the personage there spoken of, was to ride upon an ass colt; whereas, the apostles, in order to be sure of fulfilling the prophecy, represent Jesus as riding upon an ass, and the colt, too! "They spread their garments upon them, and set him upon them."[See the evangelists in loc.] In the next place, a man may ride into Jerusalem upon an ass, without being thus necessarily demonstrated to be the Messiah. And unless, as said before, every tittle of the marks given by the prophets to designate their Messiah, be found in Jesus, and in any other claiming to be that Messiah his being born in Bethlehem, and riding upon an ass into Jerusalem, will by no means prove him to be so. Besides, those who will take the trouble to look at the context in Zechariah, will find, that the event spoken of in the quotation, is spoken of as contemporaneous with the restoration Israel, and the establishment of peace and happiness, which seems to cut up by the roots the interpretation of the evangelists. And to conclude the argument,—Jesus being born in Bethlehem, and riding into Jerusalem, allowing it to be true, would not, we think, frustrate these prophecies of a future fulfillment—for no one can disprove, that if so be the will of God, such a person as the Messiah is described to be, might be born in Bethlehem to-morrow, and ride in triumph into Jerusalem, twenty years afterwards.
The next passage which has been offered, as a prophecy of Jesus, is to be found in the 12th chap. of Zech. v. 10, and part of it has been misquoted by John. And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and supplications, and they shall look on me whom they have pierced. So it stands in the English version; but, before I state what it ought to be, I would observe, that before the evangelist, (who in his account of the crucifixion applies this passage as referring to Jesus being pierced with a spear) could make this passage fit his purpose, he had to substitute the word him for me, as it is in the Hebrew; confirmed by, I believe, all the versions, ancient and modern, without exception. Yet, with this change, it will by no means answer his purpose; for the Hebrew word here translated pierced, in this place signifies blasphemed, or insulted, as it is understood by Grotius, who confirms this rendering from the Hebrew of Levit. xxiv. 11, where in this passage the Israelitish woman's son blasphemed the name of the Lord. The Hebrew word translated blasphemed is from the same root with the Hebrew word translated pierced in the passage in Zechariah quoted above. So that the passage ought to be translated thus:—I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and supplications, and they shall look towards me whom they have blasphemed. [To look towards God is a phrase frequently met with, and well understood.] Now, to enable us to understand more perfectly this passage, let us consider the context, where we shall find that it states, that there was to be a war in Judea, and a siege of Jerusalem, and then a deliverance of the Jews, by the destruction of all the nations, that should come up at that time, against Jerusalem. Immediately after which matters, follows the prophecy under consideration—I will pour upon the house of David, &c. Now, from these things thus laid together, I crave leave to argue in the words of Dr. Sykes [Essay, &c., p. 268]—Did any one circumstance of all this happen to the Jews about the time of the death of Jesus? Or rather, was not every thing the reverse of what Zechariah says; and instead of all nations being destroyed that came about Jerusalem, Jerusalem itself was destroyed: instead of a spirit of grace and supplications, the Jews have had their hearts hardened against the Christ; instead of mourning for him whom they have pierced, they condemn him and his followers even until this day.
But it is tiresome thus to waste time in proving that parts and ends of verses, disjointed from their connexion, and even the words quoted, some of them changed and some transposed, (though even done according to the rules given by the venerable Surenhusius) prove nothing. We must, therefore, devote the remainder of this long chapter to the consideration of the three famous prophecies, on which Christians have not hesitated, with triumphing confidence, to rest the issue of their cause. These are the prophecy of Shiloh, Gen. 49; the 53d ch. of Isaiah; and Daniels prophecy of the seventy weeks. I will consider them in order, and thus wind up the chapter.
I have some where read in a catechism, the following question and answer:—Q. How can you confound the Jews, and prove, from prophecy, that the Messiah is already come? A. From these two prophecies—The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, &c.—Gen. xlix.; and this—Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people, &c.—Dan. ix. 24.
But, notwithstanding these overwhelming proofs, the stubborn
Jews refuse to be confounded! on the contrary, they in fact laugh at
Christians for being so easily imposed upon.