5. Individualization of the Messianic Idea

When, however, the figure of the great future king had become rooted in the hope of the community, prophecies concerning him were found not only in such utterances as expressly mentioned him, but passages which re ferred in the first place to the living and ruling kings of Israel and Judah were also brought into relationship with him. His figure was embellished from Psalms such as ii., xlv., lxxii., ex., and, indeed, from the royal psalms in general, and words which were used in regard to the rise or glorification of royalty in Israel were referred to the Messiah personally (as Num. xxiv. 15-19). Even such passages as Gen. ix. 25-27, xii. 1-3, and the analagous sayings of the patriarchs were interpreted in the same way; more especially Gen. xlix. 10 and similar texts were conceived in a directly Messianic sense. Later the Church placed Gen. iii. 14-15 at the head as the protevangelium, since it announced the victory of the seed of the woman (which was taken in an individual sense) over the power of evil. The words of Deut. xviii. 15, also, were interpreted to signify an individual prophet, and he was partially identified with the Messiah. The tendency to interpret many passages as Messianic had become habitual in the Jewish community before Christ. In the so-called apocryphal writings of the Old Testament the Messianic hope is not prominent. The reason for this is to be sought partly in the historical and didactic character of the class of writings to which these books belong, partly in the fact that expectations regarding the future were not so much in the foreground in the circles in which these writings originated. On the other hand, the Pseudepigrapha (q.v.) prove that after the Maccabean period the Messianic hope, both in a wider and in a narrower sense, awakened to new life. As long as it seemed that the honored Hasmoneans (q.v.) would be able to lead the people to a new and happy future, the parties attached to them had no longing for the dynasty of David. It was rather a subject of satisfaction that the theocratic offices were united in them, as when John Hyrcanus, in addition to his princely dignity, was also endowed with that of high priest and was even regarded as a prophet with whom God communicated (Josephus, Ant. XIII., x. 7; War I., ii. 8). Prophecies such as Ob. 19 sqq. and Amos ix. 11-12, seemed to be fulfilled by him when he conquered Samaria and Idumaea, destroyed the temple on Gerizim, and forced circumcision upon the Edomites. The narrow and formal spirit which reigned among the devotees of the law was as little favorable to the comprehension of the prophecies regarding the future salvation of the people as was Philonic Hellenism.