,
_Prophetische Theologie_, S. 293.) Should Genesis become to such a
degree inconsistent with itself as not to answer a question which
itself has called forth? But that answer is contained in the passage
under consideration, only if Shiloh be taken for the personal name of
the Redeemer. Unless we have recourse to artificial explanations, the
announcement of Judah's being the bearer of salvation is to be found in
our passage, only when, at the same time, the first indication of the
person of the Messiah is perceived in it.

If the reference of the passage to a personal Messiah be explained
away, we should certainly be at a loss to discover where the
fundamental prophecy of such an one could possibly be found. We should
then, in the first place, be thrown upon the Messianic Psalms,
especially Ps. ii. and cx. But as it is the office of prophecy only to
introduce to the knowledge of the congregation [Pg 78] truths
absolutely new, it would subvert the whole relation of psalm-poetry to
prophecy, if in these psalms we were to seek for the origin of the
expectations of a personal Messiah. These psalms become intelligible,
only if in Shiloh we recognise the first name of the Messiah. The
passage in question, in combination with the prophetical announcement
of the eternal dominion of the house of David, afforded the complete
objective foundation for the subjective poetry of the Psalms. The
eternity of dominion here promised to Judah was, as we learn from 2
Sam. vii., transferred to David. The exalted person in whom, according
to our passage, the dominion of Judah was to culminate, must then
necessarily belong to the house of David. _Further_,--If the passage
under review be understood of the Messiah, we have an excellent
fountainhead for all the prophecies of a personal Messiah; in its
significant, enigmatical, and expressive brevity, it is most suitable
for such a purpose. But if its reference to the Messiah be explained
away, we are deprived altogether of a suitable starting-point. In the
Davidic psalms, the Messianic prophecy already more strongly resembles
a stream than a fountain.

So great is the weight of these reasons for the Messianic
interpretation, that we might reasonably have expected that such
expositors at least as stand on the ground of positive Christianity
should abandon it only from overwhelming reasons, or, at least,
from such only as are in the highest degree probable. But in this
expectation we have been