INTRODUCTION.
§ I.
The names Messiah and Christ.
Messianic prophecies, in the most common acceptation of the term, are such as connect the hope of salvation and the glory of God's people with an ideal king, who, originating in Israel is to rule the world. This king is as such divinely anointed, but this attribute does not become a distinctive designation in the Old Testament. First in the doctrinal language of post-biblical Judaism he is called almost with the significance of a proper name מָשִׁיחַ, Greek Μεσσίας, which follows the Aramaic form מְשִׁיחָא. The fundamental passage for this designation of the king of the final period is Ps. II, 2. There is no Old Testament passage in which מָשִׁיחַ indisputably indicates the future king with eschatological exclusiveness. The name Χριστός is the translation of מָשִׁיחַ, but although it corresponds to it verbally, yet it is not really coextensive, for in the designation of Jesus as the Christ the idea of king is relieved of its one–sidedness. The ideas of the superhuman deity and of the prophet of the kingdom of heaven, and of the priest by reason of the sacrifice of himself, are combined in this name with the idea of the royal dignity. With it is united the representation of one triply anointed to a threefold office.
Rem. I. In the Old Testament David, 2 Sam. XXIII, I, and the king of the house of David are called מָשִׁיחַ. In other passages it may be questioned whether the name is eschatologically intended Hab. III. 18; Ps. CXXXII, 17; in still other passages the Messiah is at least indirectly intended, since the name indicates a king, who realizes the idea of the king of Israel I Sam. II, 10. 35. Only in Ps. II, 2 can there be scarcely any doubt about the eschatological meaning. Perhaps in Dan. IX, 25 מָשִׁיחַ נָגִיד indicates the future One as high priest and king in one person. On the other hand in ver. 26 מָשִׁיחַ is not the king Messiah, but either Seleucus IV Philopator, (d. 175 B. C.) compare Dan. XI,
