alness, and conveying his very intentions perfectly
translated from the Aramaan into the Greek tongue, would imply the
most sustained and amazing of all miracles. There is nothing
whatever that indicates any such miraculous intervention. There is
nothing to discredit the fair presumption that the writers were
left to their own abilities, under the inspiration of an earnest
consecrating love and truthfulness. And we must, with due
limitations, distinguish between the original words and conscious
meaning of the sublime Master, illustrated by the emphasis and
discrimination of his looks, tones, and gestures, and the
apprehended meaning recorded long afterwards, shaped and colored
by passing through the minds and pens of the sometimes dissentient
and always imperfect disciples. He once declared to them, "I have
many things to say unto you, but ye are not able to bear them."
Admitting his infallibility, as we may, yet asserting their
fallibility, as we must, and accompanied, too, as his words now
are by many very obscuring circumstances, it is extremely
difficult to lay the hand on discriminated texts and say,
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The Messianic doctrine prevalent among the Jews in the time of
Jesus appears to have been built up little by little, by religious
faith, national pride, and priestly desire, out of literal
interpretations of figurative prophecy, and Cabalistic
interpretations of plain language, and Rabbinical traditions and
speculations, additionally corrupted in some particulars by
intercourse with the Persians. Under all this was a central
spiritual germ of a Divine promise and plan. A Messiah was really
to come. It was in answering the questions, what kind of a king he
was to be, and over what sort of a kingdom he was to reign, that
the errors crept in. The Messianic conceptions which have come
down to us through the Prophets, the Targums, incidental allusions
in the New Testament, the Talmud, and the few other traditions and
records yet in existence, are very diverse and sometimes
contradictory. They agreed in ardently looking for an earthly
sovereign in the Messiah, one who would rise up in the line of
David and by the power of Jehovah deliver his people, punish their
enemies, subdue the world to his sceptre, and reign with Divine
auspices of beneficence and splendor. They also expected that then
a portion of the dead would rise from the under world and assume
their bodies again, to participate in the