,Messiah משיח נגיד thing so signified, although not actually anointed with oil, are VOL. I. N EXERCITATION IX. 1. The first promise explained in the subsequent. § 2. The name Mes-. siah seldom used in the original; frequently in the Targums. § 3. Places applied unto him therein. Gen. iii. 15. Use of their testimony a-. gainst the present Jews. 4. Gen. xxxv. 21. Occasion of the mention of the Messiah in that place, from Micah iv. 8. § 5. Genesis xlix. 17 '' first mentioned. § 6. Ver. 10. until Shiloh come. A. greement of the Targums. 7. Exod. xii. 42. Christ typified by the Paschal Lamb. S. Exod. xl. 9. Wip wip who: Dan. ix. 25. 9. Numb. xi. 26. Tradition about the prophecying of Eldad and Medad. 10. Numb. xxiii. 21. xxiv. 7. 17. 20. 24. Consent of Targums, Talmudists, Cabalists. 11-13. Deut. xviii. 15-19. The prophet promised, who. § 14. 1 Sam. ii. 10. Hannah's prophecy of Christ. § 15. 2 Sam. xxiii. 3. David's in his last words. ,מושל באדם § 16--18. 1 Kings iv. 33. Solomon's prophecy. Light of the church. increased by David. 19. Ps. ii. vindicated. 20. Ps. xviii. 32. 21. Ps. xxi. 3, 4. § 22. Ps. xlv. § 23. Ps. lxviii. lxix. § 24. Ps. lxxii. Targum, Midrash, commentators. Vulgar Latin corrupted: and the LXX. and 1 What. § 25. Ps. lxxx. 16. 18. 12 how to be rendered. 12 who. 26. Ps. cx. Prophecy of the Messiah. Confession of the Jews. § 27. Of the Targum on Solomon's Song. § 28. Isa. ii. 2, 3, 4. 29. Isa. iv. 2. Vindicated. § 30, 31. Isa. ix. 6. Sense of the Targum on the place. Vulgar Latin noted. 32. Entanglements of the Jews from this testimony. 33, 34. Four things promised, not agreeing to Hezekiah. Answer of Jarchi. Kimchi. Aben Ezra. § 35. The name mentioned whose. who. § 36. Answer of Abarbinel. § 37. Of the increase of his government. § 38. Isa. x. 27. § 39. Isa. xi. 1. Abarbinel's prediction of the ruin of the Christians. § 40. Isa. xvi. 1. 41. Isa. xxviii. 5. 42. Isa. xlii. 1. § 43. Isa. lii. 13. § 44. Jer. xxiii. 5. Corruption of old translations. Purity of the original. Messiah, Jehovah our righteousness. Ezek. xxxvii. 24. § 45. Jer. xxx. 21. xxxiii. 15, 16. § 46. Hos. iii. 5. xiv. 8. § 47. Micah iv. 8. § 48. Micah v. 2. Vindicated. Kimchi's blasphemy. § 49. Zech. iii. 8. iv. 7. vi. 12. x. 4. ix. 9. xi. 12, 13. xii. 10. § 50. Conclusion. 81. WE have considered the first great promise concerning the Messiah, and evinced from thence the nature of his work and office, as also shewed in general how testimony is given unto him throughout the Old Testament, and whence his name is derived. We shall now moreover enquire in particular into some of those places where he is expressly foretold, promised, or prophesied of, that we may thence gather what farther light con cerning his person, and natures, and his employment, was granted unto the church of old, which the present Jews wilfully res ject. And herein, as I aim not to collect all the prophecies and promises which God gave concerning him, by the mouth of his holy prophets from the foundation of the world, but only to single out some of the most eminent that give us a direct description of his person or his grace, in conformity to, or in confirmation of what hath been already discoursed about them; so I shall have an especial respect unto those prophecies which the Jews themselves do acknowledge to belong unto him. There ,משמיע ישועה is a book written by Alvarloined which he calls wherein he undertakes to explain all those texts of scriptare, or prophecies, which cannot be understood either spiritually, or of the second temple, but of their redemption by the Messiah. This at present, among others, I am forbidden the use of, which might have been of advantage in the present design. I shall therefore principally insist on those places which are applied unto him in the Targums, the most authentic writings amongst them, whereunto some others shall be added, which I have observed to be interpreted to the same purpose in the best of their commentators. §2. The name Messiah is but twice or thrice at most used in the Old Testament, directly and immediately to denote the promised seed; namely, Dan. ix. 25, 26. whereunto Ps. ii. 2. may be added. But this name, for the reasons before given, prevailing in the Judaical church, it is frequently made use of, and inserted in the Targums, where he is treated of, although he be not expressly named in the original. Elias, in his Methurgamim, reckons up fifty of those places, whereunto one and twenty more are added by Buxtorfius. The principal of these deserve our consideration, considering that some of the most eminent of them, are denied by the latter Jews, to belong unto him, especially those which give testimony unto that part of the faith of Christians concerning his person and office, which by them is opposed or denied. And this consent of the Targums is of great weight against them, as containing an evidence of what persuasion prevailed amongst themselves, before they suited all their expositions of Scripture, unto their own infidelity in opposition to the gospel and its doctrines. And unto these, as was said, such others shall be added, as their chief masters do yet acknowledge directly to belong unto him. 3. The first of this sort that occurs, is the first promise before insisted on and vindicated, Gen. iii. 15. It (the seed of the woman) shall bruise thy head, the head of the serpent. Mention is made here expressly of the Messiah in the Targums of Jonathan and Jerusalem; and this promise is applied unto him after their manner. The seed of the woman shall bruise the שפיותא בעיקבא ביומי,head of the serpent, and they shall obtain , healing, or a plaster for the heel, (the hurt received by the serpent) in the days of Messiah the king; so Jonathan; and Targ. Hierusal. useth words to the same purpose. Both of them expressly refer the promise to the days of the Messiah; that is, to himself, or the work that he was to do, whence they insert his name into the text. And this is perfectly destructive unto the present pretensions of the Jews. The work here assigned unto him, of recovering the evil of sin and misery brought on the world through the temptation of the serpent, is that wherewith they would have him to have nothing to do. Besides, his suffering is intimated in the foregoing expression, that the serpent should bruise his heel, from which they much desire to free their Messiah. But that which principally lies against them in this testimony is, that whereas they appropriate the promise of the Messiah unto themselves, and make the doctrine concerning him to belong unto the law of Moses, whereof say some, (those that follow Maimonides) it is one of the fundamentals, others (as Josephus Albo) that it is a branch of the fundamental, concerning rewards and punishments, it is here given out by the testimony of their Targums, unto the posterity of Adam indefinitely, two thousand years before the call and separation of Abraham, from whom they pretend to derive their privilege, and much longer before the giving of their law, whereof they would have it to be a part; which is diligently to be heeded against them. §. 4. Concerning the promises made unto Abraham we have spoken before; the next mention of the Messiah in the Targum, is on Gen. xxxv. 21. where occasion is taken to bring him into the text. For unto those words, and Israel journeyed and spread his tent, 77, unto, or beyond the tower of Edar, אתרא רמתמן עתיד דאתגלי מלכא משיחא בסוף,Jonathan adds , which is the place from whence the king Messiah shall be revealed in the end of the days. And this tradition is taken from Micah iv. 8. 1781, And thou tower of Edar, or of the flock, unto thee shall it come, the first dominion. Now this tower of Edar was a place in, or near to Bethlehem, as is manifest from the place in Genesis. For whereas Jacob is said to stay at Eprah that is Bethlehem, where he set up a pillar on the grave of Rachel, ver. 19, 20. upon his next removal, he spread his tent beyond the tower of Edar; which must therefore needs be a place near unto Bethlehem. And the prophet assigning the rise of the kingdom of the Messiah unto that place, because he was to be born at Bethlehem; the paraphrast took occasion to make mention of him here, where that place is first spoken of, declaring their expectation of his being born there, which accordingly had long before come to pass. § 5. Gen. xlix. 1. And Jacob called unto his sons, and said, Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you what shall befal you,, in the latter days,' or the last days, or end of the days. Jonathan paraphraseth thus on these words; after that, or although the glory of the divine majesty was ,קצא רעחיד מלכא משיחא למיתי אתכסי מיניה,revealed unto him the time, (that is the express time) wherein the king Messias was to come, was hid from him, and therefore he said, come and I will declare unto you what shall befal you in the end of the days. This expression of x, the end or last of the days, is an usual periphrasis for the days of the Messiah in the Old Testament. To that purpose it is used, Numb. xxiv. 14. Deut. iv. 30. Isa. ii. 2. Hos. iii. 5. Micah iv. 1. and our apostle expressly refers unto it, Heb. i. 1. Now this expression denotes no certain season of time, but only indefinitely directs to the last days of the posterity of Jacob continuing a distinct church and people, for those ends for which they were originally separated from all others. And this being the first place wherein it is used, and which all the rest refer unto, the paraphrast here took occasion both to mention the Messiah of whose time of coming this was to be the constant description, as also to intimate the reason of the frequent use of this expression; which was because the precise time of his coming was hidden even from the best of the prophets, unto whom the glory of the divine Majesty was in other things revealed. Besides the ensuing predictions in the chapter do sufficiently secure the application of the days mentioned, unto the time of the Messiah. $6. Gen. xliv. 10. TV, until Shiloh come, All the three Targums agree in the application of these words unto the Messiah. Onkelos; ", until Messiah comes. עד זמן דייתי ; Jonathan and Jerusalem use the same words unto the time wherein the king Messiah shall • מלכא משיחא come. An illustrious prophecy this is concerning him; the first that limits the time of his coming, with an express circumstance, and which must therefore afterwards be at large insisted on. At present it may suffice to remark the suffrage of these Targums against the perverseness of their later masters, who contend by all artifices imaginable, to pervert this text unto other purposes; who are therefore to be pressed with the authority of the Targumists, which with none of their cavilling exceptions they can evade. The following words, also, ver. 11, 12. are applied by Jonathan unto the Messiah in the pursuit of the former prediction, and that not unfitly, as hath been shewed by others already. See Ainsworth on the place. § 7. Exod. xii. 42. It is a night much to be observed.' |