The Grounds of Christianity Examined by Comparing The New Testament with the Old Part 4

1. That ?the nations,? as it is in the original, did not a.s.semble 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, G.o.d 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 pa.s.sage 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 pa.s.sage probably refers to the Messiah, but by no means signifies that this Messiah was to be born in Bethlehem, as a.s.serted 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 pa.s.sage to be interpreted as signifying that Bethlehem was to be the birth place of the Messiah.

What then? Will a man?s 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 const.i.tute 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 a.s.s, and upon a colt, the foal of an a.s.s.? This has been applied by the evangelists to Jesus, who rode upon an a.s.s 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 pa.s.sage quoted above, the personage there spoken of, was to ride upon ?an a.s.s? colt;? whereas, the apostles, in order to be sure of fulfilling the prophecy, represent Jesus as riding upon an a.s.s, 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 a.s.s, without being thus necessarily demonstrated to be the Messiah. And unless, as said before, every t.i.ttle 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 a.s.s 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 G.o.d, 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 pa.s.sage 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 pa.s.sage as referring to Jesus? being pierced with a spear) could make this pa.s.sage fit his purpose, he had to subst.i.tute 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 pa.s.sage ?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 pa.s.sage in Zechariah quoted above. So that the pa.s.sage 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 G.o.d? is a phrase frequently met with, and well understood.] Now, to enable us to understand more perfectly this pa.s.sage, 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 circ.u.mstance 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 Daniel?s 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.

The prophecy concerning Shiloh, the Jews acknowledge, refers to their Messiah. But they do not allow that it defines or limits the time of his coming.

And that it in fact does not, will be perfectly, evident to all who will look at the place in the Hebrew bible, which they will find pointed to read not--?The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, and a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come,? &c.; but thus--?The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, for ever; for Shiloh shall come, and to him shall the gathering of the people be.? So that the prophecy does not intimate that the Messiah should come before the sceptre be departed from Judah; but that it should not depart for ever, but shall be restored when Shiloh comes. This is the plain and obvious sense of the prophecy; and, moreover, is the only one that is consistent with historical fact. For, in truth, the sceptre had departed from Judah several hundred years before Jesus of Nazareth was born. For from the time of the Babylonish captivity ?Judah? has never been free, but in subjection to the Persians, the Syrians, the Romans, and all the world.

If my readers desire further satisfaction with regard to this interpretation of this famous prophecy, I refer them to the dispute upon this subject between the celebrated Rittangelius, and a learned Jew, (preserved in Wagenseils? ?Tela Ignea,?) where he will find Rittangelius first amicably inviting the Hebrew to discuss the point, who does so most ably and respectfully toward his Christian antagonist, and unanswerably establishes the interpretation above stated, by the laws of the Hebrew language, by the ancient interpretation of the Targum, by venerable tradition, and by appealing to history. Rittangelius begins his defence by shuffling, an ends by getting into a pa.s.sion, and calling names; which his opponent, who is cool, because confident of being able to establish his argument, answers by notifying to Rittangelius his compa.s.sion and contempt.

The next prophecy proposed to be considered, is the celebrated prophecy of Isaiah, consisting of part of the 52nd, and the whole of the 53rd, chapter. It is the only prophecy which Paley thinks worth bringing forward in his elaborate defence; and it must be confessed, that if this prophecy relates to the Messiah, it is by far the most plausible of any that are brought forward in favour of Jesus Christ. It merits, therefore, a thorough discussion, and I shall endeavour that it shall be a candid one. This prophecy is quoted by Jesus himself in Luke xxii. 39, and by Philip, when he converted the Eunuch, (Acts 8,) for ?beginning at this prophecy, he preached unto him Jesus.?

It will not be necessary to cite the pa.s.sage at length, it being one perfectly familiar to every Christian. I will, then, before I consider it, first premise, that since it has been heretofore abundantly made evident, that the Messiah of the Old Testament was not to suffer, and die, but to live and reign, it is according to the rules of sound criticism, and I think sound theology too, to interpret this solitary pa.s.sage, so that it may not contradict very many others of a directly contrary import. Now, if this pa.s.sage can relate only to the Messiah, it will throw into utter confusion the whole scheme of the prophetical scriptures. But if it can be made to appear, that it does not necessarily relate to him; if it can, consistently with the context, be otherwise applied, the whole difficulty vanishes. Now, the authors of the New Testament have applied this prophecy to the Messiah, and to Jesus as the Messiah; and for doing so, they have been accused of misapplication of it-from the earliest times; since we know from Origen, that the Jews of his time derided the Christians for relying upon this prophecy; alleging that it related to their own nation, and was a prophecy of their suffering and persecuted state, and of their ultimate emanc.i.p.ation and happiness.

And this interpretation of the prophecy the learned Vitringa, in his commentary upon Is. in loc., allows to be the most respectable he had met with among the Jews, and, according to him, ?to be by no means dispised.?

In order that the fitness or unfitness of this application of the prophecy may be made apparent, and evident, we will new lay before the reader this famous prophecy, part by part, each part accompanied by the Jewish interpretation.

Isaiah lii. 13, ?Behold, my servant shall prosper, he shall be exalted, and extolled, and be very high.? Interpretation--My servant Israel, though he be in great affliction for a time, yet hereafter shall be released from captivity, and be honoured and raised to elevation very high among the nations of the earth. [That the Jewish nation is spoken of, in the singular number and under the t.i.tle of G.o.d?s servant frequently in the Old Testament, is well known, and will be here made certain by a few examples. Isaiah xli. (the chapter preceding the prophecy,) ?But thou Israel my servant, thou, Jacob, whom I have chosen,? presently afterwards, ?saying to thee, thou art my servant.? Again, chapter xliv.-- ?Now, therefore, hear Jacob my servant,? and so frequently in the same chapter. See also ch. xlv., and Jer. ch. x.x.x., and Ps. cx.x.xvi., and Isaiah throughout, for similar examples.]

?And many were astonished at thee (his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men.)?

That is--And many were astonished at thee, on account of thy abject state, and miserable condition, being squalid with misery, and suffering more than any men.

?So shall he sprinkle many nations, the kings shall shut their mouths at him; for that which had not been told them, shall they see, and that which they had not heard, shall they consider.?

Interpretation--As the Gentiles wondered at their abject state, so as to make them a proverb of reproach, so shall they admire at their wonderful change of circ.u.mstances, from the depth of degradation to the height of prosperity and honour. So that they shall lay their hands upon their mouths, which had beforetime reproached them, when they shall see their felicity to be so far beyond what had been told them, and they shall attentively consider it, and they shall say to each other--

?Who hath believed our report, and the arm of the Lord to whom was it revealed? For he grew up [Hebrew, not ?he shall grow up,?

as in the English version] before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry soil; he had no form nor comeliness; and when we saw him, there was no beauty that we should desire him.?

The sense is--The Gentiles shall say to each other in wonder, ?Who believed what we heard concerning them? And to whom was the interest the Lord took in them made known? For it was a dispised people, feeble, and wretched, like a tender plant springing up out of a thirsty soil. Their appearance was abject, and there was nothing attractive in their manners.?

?He was despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief: and we hid, as it were, our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.?

That is--They were despised, and held in abhorrence: they were men of sorrow, and familiar with suffering. We looked upon them with dislike: we hid our faces from them, and esteemed them not.

?Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows.?

Interpretation--Surely their sufferings are as great as if they had borne the sins of the whole world; or, they are, nevertheless, the means appointed to remove the sufferings of an afflicted world, for G.o.d hath connected universal happiness with their prosperity; and the end of their sufferings, is the beginning of our joys.

?Yet did we esteem him smitten of G.o.d, and afflicted.?

Interpretation--Nevertheless, we considered them as a G.o.d- abandoned race, and devoted to wretchedness by him, for having crucified their king.

?But he was wounded for [or by] our transgressions, he was bruised [for or by] our iniquities: the chastis.e.m.e.nt of our peace was upon him; and through his stripes we are healed.?

That is--But, instead of being the victims of G.o.d?s wrath, they were wounded through our cruelty, they were bruised by our iniquitous treatment, we being suffered to do so, to chastise them for their sins, and to prove their obedience; and this chastis.e.m.e.nt is that by which our peace is to be effected; for their chastis.e.m.e.nt and probation being finished. G.o.d will by them impart and diffuse peace and happiness.

?All we like sheep have gone astray, we, have turned every one to his own way, and the Lord hath caused to meet upon him the iniquity of us all.?

But it is we who have sinned more than they: we have all gone astray in our ignorance, being without the knowledge of G.o.d, or of his law. Yet the Lord hath permitted us to make them the subjects of our oppressive iniquity.

?He was oppressed, [or ?exposed to pecuniary exactions?] and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he was brought as a lamb to the slaughter; and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he opened, not his mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment, and who shall declare his generation, [?into his manner of life, who stoopeth to look?? according to the Hebrew] for he was cut off out of the land of the living; for, [or by] the transgression of my people was he stricken. And he made his grave with the wicked; but with the rich were his deaths, [or tomb]

because he had done no violence, neither was deceit in his mouth.?

Interpretation--How pa.s.sive and unresisting were they, when oppressed!--They were afflicted, and they complained not; when through false accusations, and mistaken cruelty they were plundered, and condemned to die, they went like a Iamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so they opened not their mouth. They were taken from the dungeon to be slain, they were wantonly ma.s.sacred, and every man was their foe; and the cause of the sufferers who condescended to examine; for by the thoughtless crimes of my people, they suffered. Yet notwithstanding their graves were appointed with the wicked; yet they were rich in their deaths. This did G.o.d grant them, because they had not done iniquity.

Rabbi Isaac, author of the famous Munimen Fidei#, renders the original--?on account of impieties was he given to his sepulchre, and on account of his riches was his death, because he did no violence, neither was deceit in his mouth?--which he interprets thus:--We (the former speakers) raised against them false accusations of impiety, on account of their religion, and refusing to worship our idols; but their riches was the real cause why we put them to death. Nevertheless, they used no violence in opposition to our oppressions, neither would they forsake their religion, and deceitfully a.s.sent to ours in hypocrisy.*

?Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him: he hath put him to grief.

When thou shalt make his soul a propitiation for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hands.? [This proves that this prophecy cannot refer to any individual, but may refer to the Jewish nation, because one individual cannot be put to death, and yet ?see his seed,? and ?prolong his days.?] ?After [or on account of] the travail of his soul, seeing he shall be satisfied, by his knowledge shall my righteous servant make many righteous [or show them righteousness,] and he shall bear the burden of their iniquities.?

That is--After and for their sufferings, they shall be abundantly rewarded; by their superior knowledge of religious truth, shall they make many wise, ?for many nations shall go, and say, come ye, and let us ascend to the mount of the Lord, and to the house of the G.o.d of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways?--Mic. iv. ch.

?Wherefore, I will give him a portion with the great, and with the mighty shall he divide the spoil, because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors, and himself bear the sin of many, and interceded for the transgressors.?

Interpretation--Therefore, their reward shall be exceeding great, because for the sake of their duty, they willingly exposed themselves to death, and were accounted as transgressors, and bore the cruel afflictions inflicted by many, and made intercession for them who afflicted them.

Such is the explication given by the Jews of this prophecy. I have made no important alterations of the common English translation; except, that in some pa.s.sages, I have made it more conformable to the original by subst.i.tuting a verb in the past tense, instead of leaving it in the future, as in the English version. Those translators have taken certain liberties in this respect to make this prophecy (and several others) more accordant to their own views, which are not supported by the Hebrew: many of these expressions, however, we have left unaltered, as they are quite harmless. But if any of our readers desire further information with regard to the propriety of this interpretation of this prophecy of Isaiah, we refer him to the ?Munimen Fidei,? contained in Wagenseil's ?Tela Ignea,? where he will find it amply ill.u.s.trated, and defended. Here, in this work, we shall content ourselves with proving, that this prophecy can by no means relate to Jesus, from these circ.u.mstances:--1. Jesus certainly was not exalted and magnified, and made very great upon earth, which, as has been shown, was to be the scene of the exaltation of the Old Testament Messiah; but was put to a cruel and disgraceful death. 2. He was not oppressed by pecuniary exactions, as is said of the subject of this prophecy. 3. He was never taken from prison to die, for he was never in one. 4. He did not ?see his seed,? nor ?prolong his days,? since he died childless; and we will not permit the word ?seed? to be spiritualized on this occasion, for the word ?seed? in the Old Testament, means nothing else, than literally ?children,? which it is not pretended he ever had; and how could he ?prolong his days,? when he was cut off in his 33d year. 5. Besides, who were ?the strong and mighty,?

with whom he divided the spoil? Were they the twelve fishermen of Galilee? and what was the spoil divided? In a word, the literal application of this prophecy to Jesus is now given up by the most learned Hebrew scholars, who allow, that the literal sense of the original can never be understood of him. [See Priestley?s notes on the scriptures, in loco; and the context before and after.]

We have now come to the last subject proposed to be considered in this chapter, viz., Daniel?s prophecy of the seventy weeks, the ?instar omnium? of the prophetical proofs of Christianity, and which was for ages held up to the view of ?the unbelieving race,?

as cutting off beyond doubt their ?hope of Israel? from ever appearing, since the time so distinctly foretold had elapsed. But such is the instability of human opinions, that it was at length suspected, and at last ascertained-by the learned, that ?the stubborn Israelites? had some reason for denying that prophecy, any voice in the affair.

During many years, one learned man after another, had amused himself with destroying the system of his predecessor, and replacing it with his own, not a whit better, but tending to the same end, viz., to make the prophecy of the seventy weeks tally and fit with the event of the crucifixion. At length Marsham, a learned Englishman, declared, and demonstrated, that his predecessors, in this enquiry, had been grossly mistaken, for that the prophecy in all its parts was totally irrelevant and irreconcileable with the time of the crucifixion. The appearance of his book put all the theologians of that age in an uproar! But many learned Christians in the last, and present, century, now freely acknowledge, that Daniel is not on their side, but as much a Jew as his brethren.

This celebrated prophecy, literally translated from the original, is as follows:--Dan. ix. 24, &c.--?Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people, and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy, [i. e., the sanctum sanctorum, or Holy of Holies.] Know, therefore, and understand, that from the going forth of the word to restore and build Jerusalem, unto the anointed prince, shall be seven weeks; and (in) threescore and two weeks, the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times. And after threescore and two weeks shall the anointed (one) be cut off, and be without a successor; (Heb. ?and not, or none to him?) and the city and the sanctuary shall be destroyed# by the people of the prince that shall come; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week, and half the week (i. e., in the midst of the week) he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation and that (is) determined, be poured upon the desolate??

This is the prophecy on which such stress has been laid, as pointing out the precise time of the coming of the Messiah; and I shall fully demonstrate that it hath not the most distant reference to that event. And for the better explanation of the prophecy, it is proper that we attend a little to the context.

*In the preceding chapter of Daniel it is said, that when Daniel was informed of the vision of the two thousand and three hundred days, he sought for the meaning; but not rightly understanding it, he judged, that that great number was a contradiction to the word of G.o.d as delivered by Jeremiah, concerning the redemption at the end of seventy years; (Jer. xxv. 11, 12, and ch. xxix. 10) and from thence he concluded that the captivity was prolonged on account of the sins of the nation. This doubt arose from his not understanding the prophecy, and, therefore, the angel said unto him,--?I am now come forth to give thee skill and understanding.? And he proceeds to inform him, that as soon as he began to pray, and G.o.d saw, his perplexity, the royal command went forth from him, that he should come to Daniel to make him understand the truth of those matters, that were to come to pa.s.s in future time. And as the angel Gabriel had explained to him the vision from whence his doubt arose, it was inc.u.mbent on him to perfect the explanation; and that is what is meant by the expression ?to show,? i. e., as I began the explanation, the commandment was, that I should finish it.