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المسيح في الفكر اليهودي

Holy_bible_1

لماذا اعترض اليهود علي اسم المسيح الذي اطلق علي يسوع ؟

إنجيل متى 26: 63


وَأَمَّا يَسُوعُ فَكَانَ سَاكِتًا. فَأَجَابَ رَئِيسُ الْكَهَنَةِ وَقَالَ لَهُ: «أَسْتَحْلِفُكَ بِاللهِ الْحَيِّ أَنْ تَقُولَ لَنَا: هَلْ أَنْتَ الْمَسِيحُ ابْنُ اللهِ؟»

ولنفهم هذا يجب ان نجاوب معا علي عدة اسئله

1 ماهو مفهوم لقب المسيح عند اليهود ؟

2 وما علاقه اسم المسيح بالميمرا التي تعني كلمة الله وحكمة الله ؟

3 وايضا ما علاقته بالشكينا التي تعني كلمة و حضور الله ومجد الله ؟

4 هل لقب المسيح اليهودي له علاقه باللوغوس في المفهوم اليهودي ايضا ؟

5 ماهو مفهوم اليهود المسيانيين ؟

6 ماهو مفهوم اليهود عن المسيح في مخطوطات قمران قبل مجيؤه ؟

7 وبعد ان ندرك هذا نبدا ندرس بعض الاعداد من العهد القديم عن مفهوم المسيح المنتظر

ما معني اعتراف المسيحيين بان يسوع هو المسيح ؟

الفرق بين مسيح الر ب والمسيح الذي هو الرب يسوع المسيح





اولا المسيا من المفهوم اليهودي



الموسوعه اليهودية



MESSIAH   





The Name. The name or title of the ideal king of the Messianic age; used also without the article as a proper name—"Mashiaḥ" (in the Babylonian Talmud and in the midrash literature), like Χριστός in the Gospels. The Grecized Μεσσιας of the New Testament (John i. 41, iv. 25) is a transliteration of the Aramaic form, Aramaic being the spoken language of Palestine in the time of Jesus. "The Messiah"

The Ideal in Isaiah.

But though the name is of later origin, the idea of a personal Messiah runs through the Old Testament. It is the natural outcome of the prophetic future hope. The first prophet to give a detailed picture of the future ideal king was Isaiah (ix. 1-6, xi. 1-10, xxxii. 1-5). Of late the authenticity of these passages, and also of those passages in Jeremiah and Ezekiel which give expression to the hope in a Messiah, has been disputed by various Biblical scholars (comp. Hackmann, "Die Zukunftserwartung des Jesaiah"; Volz, "Die Vorexilische Jahweprophetie und der Messias"; Marti, "Gesch. der Israelitischen Religion," pp. 190 et seq.; idem, "Das Buch Jesaia"; Cheyne, "Introduction to Isaiah," and edition and transl. of Isaiah in "S. B. O. T.").

اشعياء هو اول نبي يعطي صوره تفصيليه عن مسيح المستقبل في عدة ايات مثل

مسيح اشعياء

7: 13 فقال اسمعوا يا بيت داود هل هو قليل عليكم ان تضجروا الناس حتى تضجروا الهي ايضا

7: 14 و لكن يعطيكم السيد نفسه اية ها العذراء تحبل و تلد ابنا و تدعو اسمه عمانوئيل





9: 1 و لكن لا يكون ظلام للتي عليها ضيق كما اهان الزمان الاول ارض زبولون و ارض نفتالي يكرم الاخير طريق البحر عبر الاردن جليل الامم

9: 2 الشعب السالك في الظلمة ابصر نورا عظيما الجالسون في ارض ظلال الموت اشرق عليهم نور

9: 3 اكثرت الامة عظمت لها الفرح يفرحون امامك كالفرح في الحصاد كالذين يبتهجون عندما يقتسمون غنيمة

9: 4 لان نير ثقله و عصا كتفه و قضيب مسخره كسرتهن كما في يوم مديان

9: 5 لان كل سلاح المتسلح في الوغى و كل رداء مدحرج في الدماء يكون للحريق ماكلا للنار

9: 6 لانه يولد لنا ولد و نعطى ابنا و تكون الرياسة على كتفه و يدعى اسمه عجيبا مشيرا الها قديرا ابا ابديا رئيس السلام

9: 7 لنمو رياسته و للسلام لا نهاية على كرسي داود و على مملكته ليثبتها و يعضدها بالحق و البر من الان الى الابد غيرة رب الجنود تصنع هذا

هذا العدد مفهوم عند اليهود انه عن المسيح المنتظر . ورغم محاولة اليهود انكار انه يسوع المسيح وقالوا قد يكون احاز هو المسيح لكنهم تركوا التعليق علي هذه النبوه مفتوح بسؤال غير مجاوب عليه وقالوا

Said the ministering angels before the Holy One, blessed be He, Should the one who stripped the doors of the Temple and sent them to the king of Assyria, be made Messiah? Immediately, Scripture closed it up.]

ويرفض التعليق الراشي ان يقال هذا علي احاز لانه قشر باب المذبح وارسله لملك اشور والمسيح الحقيقي لن يفعل هذا

فمن هو المسيح الحقيقي ؟

By: Menachem



I was going over some of the "prophecies" that christians point to to "prove" that jesus is the messiah. This one came across as particularly weak so I would like to take a look at it and get everyone's opinion on the matter. The Christian position is that Isaiah 9:5[6] points to everything that J-sus is or that is in his name. It is claimed by christians that he is "the eternal father", "the Mighty G-d" and "the prince of peace." along with "wonderful counsellor." Lets post the Hebrew so that we can see what is going on here

The Hebrew reads:
כִּי-יֶלֶד יֻלַד-לָנוּ בֵּן נִתַּן-לָנוּ וַתְּהִי הַמִּשְרָה עַל-שִכְמוֹ וַיִּקְרָא שְמוֹ פֶּלֶא יּוֹעֵץ אֵל גִּבּוֹר אֲבִי-עַד שַר-שָלוֹם

A Jewish Translation from the Hebrew:

Isaiah 9:5. For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government is upon his shoulder; and his name shall be called "wonderful counselor, mighty G-d, eternal father, a peaceful ruler."


For the sake of argument the KJV reads:
Isaiah 9:6. For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. (KJV)

The differences are very visible between my translation from the Hebrew and what the KJV renders. The main differences being the usage of the word "the" improperly and the tanslation of "Sar Shalom." Now in order for the terms to read "the mighty G-d,The everlasting father, or The Prince of Peace(?)" the particle Heh (
ה ) would have to appear in each of the terms in hebrew which it does not. So saying "The....." would be gramatically incorrect to say the least.So what is in this person's name. I submit that all of the terms but the last one "Sar Shalom" are not part of the person's name but are descriptions of G-d himself. for evidence I give the Aramaic targum of Yonatan to Isaiah to clarify the misconception of the person's name:

Targum Yonatan:
אַמַר נְבִיָא לְבֵית דָוִד אֲרֵי רָבֵי אִיתְיְלִיד לָנָא בַּר אִתְיְהַב לָנָא וְקַבֵּל אוֹרַיְתָא עֲלוֹהִי לְמַטְרָהּ וְאִתְקְרֵי שְמֵיהּ מִן קַדָם מַפְלִיא עֵצָה אֳלָהָא נִבָּרָא קַיָם לְעַלְמַיָא מְשִיחָא דִשְלָמָא יַסְגֵי עֲלָנָא בְּיוֹמוֹהִי

Translation:
The Prophet said to the House of David, For a Child is born to us, to us a son is given; and he will accept the Torah upon himself to observe it, and his name shall be called before the Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty G-d, who exists forever, “The anointed one in who’s days peace will increase upon us.”

From the Targum we can tell that the terms "Pele yo'etz (
פֶּלֶא יּוֹעֵץ )," "El gibbor ( אֵל גִּבּוֹר )," "Avi-Ad ( אֲבִי-עַד )" were never meant to be human attributes but that of G-d's himself. the only thing that was left to the child mentioned was "Sar-Shalom ( שַר-שָלוֹם )" rendered correctly as "Peaceful Ruler." The Targum calls this person "the anointed one in who's days peace will increase upon us." the Targum makes a careful play on the words "Sar-Shalom" trying to place it as a future King who will bring peace in his days.





11: 1 و يخرج قضيب من جذع يسى و ينبت غصن من اصوله

11: 2 و يحل عليه روح الرب روح الحكمة و الفهم روح المشورة و القوة روح المعرفة و مخافة الرب

11: 3 و لذته تكون في مخافة الرب فلا يقضي بحسب نظر عينه و لا يحكم بحسب سمع اذنيه

11: 4 بل يقضي بالعدل للمساكين و يحكم بالانصاف لبائسي الارض و يضرب الارض بقضيب فمه و يميت المنافق بنفخة شفتيه

11: 5 و يكون البر منطقة متنيه و الامانة منطقة حقويه

11: 6 فيسكن الذئب مع الخروف و يربض النمر مع الجدي و العجل و الشبل و المسمن معا و صبي صغير يسوقها

11: 7 و البقرة و الدبة ترعيان تربض اولادهما معا و الاسد كالبقر ياكل تبنا

11: 8 و يلعب الرضيع على سرب الصل و يمد الفطيم يده على حجر الافعوان

11: 9 لا يسوؤون و لا يفسدون في كل جبل قدسي لان الارض تمتلئ من معرفة الرب كما تغطي المياه البحر

11: 10 و يكون في ذلك اليوم ان اصل يسى القائم راية للشعوب اياه تطلب الامم و يكون محله مجدا

11: 11 و يكون في ذلك اليوم ان السيد يعيد يده ثانية ليقتني بقية شعبه التي بقيت من اشور و من مصر و من فتروس و من كوش و من عيلام و من شنعار و من حماة و من جزائر البحر

11: 12 و يرفع راية للامم و يجمع منفيي اسرائيل و يضم مشتتي يهوذا من اربعة اطراف الارض

11: 13 فيزول حسد افرايم و ينقرض المضايقون من يهوذا افرايم لا يحسد يهوذا و يهوذا لا يضايق افرايم

11: 14 و ينقضان على اكتاف الفلسطينيين غربا و ينهبون بني المشرق معا يكون على ادوم و مواب امتداد يدهما و بنو عمون في طاعتهما

11: 15 و يبيد الرب لسان بحر مصر و يهز يده على النهر بقوة ريحه و يضربه الى سبع سواق و يجيز فيها بالاحذية

11: 16 و تكون سكة لبقية شعبه التي بقيت من اشور كما كان لاسرائيل يوم صعوده من ارض مصر



30: 27 هوذا اسم الرب ياتي من بعيد غضبه مشتعل و الحريق عظيم شفتاه ممتلئتان سخطا و لسانه كنار اكلة



32: 1 هوذا بالعدل يملك ملك و رؤساء بالحق يتراسون

32: 2 و يكون انسان كمخبا من الريح و ستارة من السيل كسواقي ماء في مكان يابس كظل صخرة عظيمة في ارض معيية

32: 3 و لا تحسر عيون الناظرين و اذان السامعين تصغى

32: 4 و قلوب المتسرعين تفهم علما و السنة العييين تبادر الى التكلم فصيحا





The ideal king to whom Isaiah looks forward will be a scion of the stock of Jesse, on whom will rest the spirit of God as a spirit of wisdom, valor, and religion, and who will rule in the fear of God, his loins girt with righteousness and faithfulness (xi. 1-3a, 5). He will not engage in war or in the conquest of nations; the paraphernalia of war will be destroyed (ix. 4); his sole concern will be to establish justice among his people (ix. 6b; xi. 3b, 4). The fruit of his righteous government will be peace and order throughout the land. The lamb will not dread the wolf, nor will the leopard harm the kid (xi. 8); that is, as the following verse explains, tyranny and violence will no longer be practised on God's holy mountain, for the land will be full of the knowledge of God as the water covers the sea (comp. xxxii. 1, 2, 16). The people will not aspire to political greatness, but will lead a pastoral life (xxxii. 18, 20). Under such ideal conditions the country can not but prosper, nor need it fear attack from outside nations (ix. 6a, xxxii. 15). The newly risen scion of Jesse will stand forth as a beacon to other nations, and they will come to him for guidance and arbitration (xi. 10). He will rightly be called "Wonderful Counselor," "Godlike Hero," "Constant Father," "Prince of Peace" (ix. 5).

سيحل عليه روح الله ويحكم بخوف الله ولن يدخل في حرب ولكنه يثبت عدل الله ويجعل الحمل يرعي مع الذئب

The "Immanuel" Passage.

This picture of the future fully accords with Isaiah's view, that the judgment will lead to a spiritual regeneration and bring about a state of moral and religious perfection; and it agrees also with the doctrine, which, in his bitter opposition to the alliances with Assyria and Egypt, he preached to his people—the doctrine, namely, that their sole concern should be God and their sole reliance be on Him, for thus, and thus only, might they endure (vii. 9; comp. also v. 4, viii. 13, xxx. 15). The prophets advocated a government which would be in conformity with God's will and be regulated by His laws of righteousness. In connection with Isaiah's Messianic hope it remains to be observed that the "Immanuel" passage, Isa. vii. 14, which is interpreted in Matt. i. 23 as referring to the birth of Jesus, has, as Robertson Smith ("The Prophets of Israel," pp. 271 et seq., 426 et seq.) and others have pointed out, no Messianic import whatever. The name has reference merely to events of the immediate present. He means to give a token by which the truth of his prophetic word may be tested, saying that any young woman giving birth to a son in the near future will call him "Immanuel" (= "God with us"), in remembrance of the withdrawal of the Syrian-Ephraimitic armies from the country (v. 16).

معني العدد الذي يحتوي علي كلمة ايمانيول

يصف اشعياء الصوره في المستقبل بصوره متناسقه ان الحكم سيقود الي اعادة النمو الروحي

وعدد اشعياء الذي وضع في متي 1: 23 يشير الي ميلاد يسوع

والعدد يشير الي امراه ستلد في المستقبل القريب ويطلق عليه اسم ايمانيول ( الله معنا )

In Jeremiah and Ezekiel.

The idea of a personal Messiah is not met with again until the time of Jeremiah and Ezekiel (the Messianic picture of Micah v. 1, 3-8, as is proved by the fact that in it Israel and the Messiah hold dominion over the nations, according to this view can not be a pre-exilic product of prophecy; in fact, it must have originated late in post-exilic times). Jeremiah's picture of the Messiah is not a detailed one; but, like his future hope in general, it agrees in all essentials with that of Isaiah. The Messiah will be "a righteous sprout of David," who will establish just judgment and wise government in the country, and whose name will be (= "God is our salvation"; xxiii. 5, 6; these two verses recur in almost the same form in xxxiii. 15, 16, but in the latter verse the name is applied to Jerusalem, an application which did not originate with Jeremiah. Ch. xxx. 9 et seq., 21 does not claim consideration here, as it is of later origin).

In Ezekiel, the Messiah is a purely passive figure, the only personal reference to him being in xvii. 23—"he will become a mighty cedar" (Hebr.). The regeneration of the people, like their restoration, is exclusively the work of God.

ميخا



5: 1 الان تتجيشين يا بنت الجيوش قد اقام علينا مترسة يضربون قاضي اسرائيل بقضيب على خده

5: 2 اما انت يا بيت لحم افراتة و انت صغيرة ان تكوني بين الوف يهوذا فمنك يخرج لي الذي يكون متسلطا على اسرائيل و مخارجه منذ القديم منذ ايام الازل

5: 3 لذلك يسلمهم الى حينما تكون قد ولدت والدة ثم ترجع بقية اخوته الى بني اسرائيل

5: 4 و يقف و يرعى بقدرة الرب بعظمة اسم الرب الهه و يثبتون لانه الان يتعظم الى اقاصي الارض

5: 5 و يكون هذا سلاما اذا دخل اشور في ارضنا و اذا داس في قصورنا نقيم عليه سبعة رعاة و ثمانية من امراء الناس

5: 6 فيرعون ارض اشور بالسيف و ارض نمرود في ابوابها فينقذ من اشور اذا دخل ارضنا و اذا داس تخومنا

5: 7 و تكون بقية يعقوب في وسط شعوب كثيرين كالندى من عند الرب كالوابل على العشب الذي لا ينتظر انسانا و لا يصبر لبني البشر

5: 8 و تكون بقية يعقوب بين الامم في وسط شعوب كثيرين كالاسد بين وحوش الوعر كشبل الاسد بين قطعان الغنم الذي اذا عبر يدوس و يفترس و ليس من ينقذ



حزقيال

17: 23 في جبل اسرائيل العالي اغرسه فينبت اغصانا و يحمل ثمرا و يكون ارزا واسعا فيسكن تحته كل طائر كل ذي جناح يسكن في ظل اغصانه

In the Older Apocalyptic Literature.

In the older apocalyptic literature the first book to be mentioned in which the Messiah figures as an earthly king is "The Vision of the Seventy Shepherds of the Book of Enoch" (ch. lxxxv.-xc.) of the time of John Hyrcanus (135-105 B.C.). The Messiah appears under the figure of a white bull at the conclusion of the world-drama (xc. 37 et seq.) and commands the respect and fear of all the heathen, who eventually become converted to God. Yet he does not take any actual rôle. It is God Himself who wards off the last attack of the heathen against Israel, gives judgment, and establishes the world-dominion of Israel. Second in this group come those parts of the Sibylline Books whose date, as Geffken's recent critical analysis has established ("Komposition und Entstehungszeit der Oracula Sibyllina," pp. 7-13), is about the year 83 B.C. The Messiah is pictured (verses 652-666) as a king sent by God from the rising of the sun, who will put an end to war all over the earth,



ويؤمنون انه سياتي من السماء ويصبح الله وخوفه يحل ويحكم . والله بنفسه هو الذي يصد الهجوم علي اسرائيل ويصدر احكام ويثبت اسرائيل

ويكون ملك مرسل من الله من شروق الشمس ويضع نهايه للحرب علي الارض كلها



The Heavenly Messiah.

The oldest apocalypse in which the conception of a preexistent heavenly Messiah is met with is the Messiological section of the Book of Enoch (xxxvii.-lxxi.) of the first century B.C. The Messiah is called "the Son of Man," and is described as an angelic being, his countenance resembling a man's, and as occupying a seat in heaven beside the Ancient of Days (xlvi. 1), or, as it is expressed in ch. xxxix. 7, "under the wings of the Lord of spirits." In ch. xlviii. 3, 6, xlix. 2b it is stated that "His name was called before the Lord of spirits before the sun and the signs of the zodiac were created, and before the stars of heaven weremade"; that "He was chosen and hidden with God before the world was created, and will remain in His presence forevermore" (comp. also lxii. 6); and that "His glory will last from eternity unto eternity and his might from generation unto generation" (that "his name" in xlviii. 3 means really "son of man" is evident from verse 6; comp. the similar use of "Shem Yhwh" for "Yhwh" in Isa. xxx. 27). He is represented as the embodiment of justice and wisdom and as the medium of all God's revelations to men (xlvi. 3; xlix. 1, 2a, 3). At the end of time the Lord will reveal him to the world and will place him on the throne of His glory in order that he may judge all creatures in accordance with the end to which God had chosen him from the beginning. When he rises for the judgment all the world will fall down before him, and adore and extol him, and give praise to the Lord of spirits. The angels in heaven also, and the elect in the Garden of Life, will join in his praise and will glorify the Lord. "He will judge all hidden things, and no one will be able to make vain excuses to him"; he will judge also Azazel, with all his associates and all his hosts. The wicked ones of the earth, especially all kings and potentates, he will give over to damnation, but for the just and chosen ones he will prepare eternal bliss, and he will dwell in their midst for all eternity (xlv. 3, 4; xlvi. 4-6; xlviii. 4-10; xlix. 4; li. 3; lv. 4; lxi. 7-lxii. 14).

ويؤمنون ان المسيح سماوي وسيطلق عليه انه ابن الانسان

سيكون من يهوه ومجده يستمر من جيل والي جيل وهو ابن الانسان

هو يمثل عدل وحكمة الله وعلاقة الله بالانسان

وفي نهاية الايام سيكشفه الرب للعالم ويضعه علي كرسي مجد الله ليحكم علي كل الخليقه لان الله اختاره من البدايه

وعند قيامه تسجد له الخليقه كلها وملائكة السماء ايضا

سيحكم علي الامور المخفية وسيقاضي عزازيل



It is worthy of special note that in the appendix to the Messiological section of Enoch, the latter himself is the Son of Man = Messiah (lxxi. 14), and, as in the Slavonic Book of Enoch and the Hebrew Book of Enoch (see Jew. Encyc. i. 676, s.v. Apocalyptic Literature), as well as throughout rabbinical literature, Enoch is identical with Meṭaṭron = Μετάθρονος or Μετατύρανος (i.e., the highest, ministering spirit, who stands next to God and represents His rulership over the universe), so there is an important connecting-link between the conception of the Son of Man = Messiah, and the Logos, which appears repeatedly in Philo in place of the earthly future king (comp., e.g., his interpretation of "ẓemaḥ," Zech. vi. 12, in "De Confess." § 14; see Memra).

هناك علاقه قويه بين الفكر المسياني لليهود عن المسيا القادم واللوغوس ( كلمة الله وحكمة الله باليوناني) والميمرا ( كلمة الله الحكيمه بالعبري )

( وهذا شئ مهم جدا هو علاقة المسيا بالميرا واللوغوس )

In Rabbinic Literature.

Whether the Messiah in Sibyllines v. 415-430, where he is called "a blessed man coming from heaven," is the preexistent or the earthly Messiah can not be determined. In the Assumptio Mosis, however (c. 4 B.C.), it may be concluded, on the ground of the identification of the Son of Man = Messiah with Enoch = Meṭaṭron in Enoch lxxi. 14, that it is the preexistent Messiah who is referred to (x. 2), for it is stated that, at the end of the last tribulation, when God's dominion will be established over all creation, "the hands of the angel who stands in the highest place will be filled,

من محاضرات الرابوات اليهود عن المسايا

سيطلق عليه من سابيلينس ابن الانسان القادم من السماء

وفي سنة 4 ق م انه سيثبت علي كل الخلائق وايدي الملائكه في العلا

Levi is mentioned as authority), the Greek text of Dan. vii. 13 presents not only the Messianic interpretation of "Bar Nash,"

وشرح الراباي ليفي دانيال 7 : 13 انه عن المسيا ابن الانسان



, "Who says that that being was Bar Nash? It was the All Holy Himself." It may be noted in passing that this haggadah is of importance for the Greek text of Dan. vii. 13 as well as for the identification of the Son of Man = Messiah with Enoch = Meṭaṭron.

من يتكلم عن بداية ابن الانسان لانه هو كلي القداسه

Heavenly Preexistence.

ويتكلم هذا الفصل عن وجود المسيح في السموات قبل نزوله علي الارض وانه موجود قبل كل الخليقه





Earthly Preexistence.

ويتكلم هذا الفصل ايضا علي وجود المسيح علي الارض قبل مجيؤه

ياتي خفي كلص ويولد مفاجئه



هذا هو المفهوم اليهودي عن المسيا قبل مجيؤه ووجوده السماوي وانه هو الميمرا واللوجوس والشكينه







ثانيا معني الكلمه او مميرا عبريا



"The Word," in the sense of the creative or directive word or speech of God manifesting His power in the world of matter or mind; a term used especially in the Targum as a substitute for "the Lord" when an anthropomorphic expression is to be avoided.

In the Targum the Memra figures constantly as the manifestation of the divinepower, or as God's messenger in place of God Himself, wherever the predicate is not in conformity with the dignity or the spirituality of the Deity



وتعني الكلمه او كلمة الله الخالقه وتجسد قوته في الكلمه الامر او العقل يستخدم في الترجوم كبديل للرب ( اي يهوه ) حين يريد ان يتحاشي استخدام تعبير التجسد

في الترجوم الميمرا هو باستمرار تجسد القوه اللاهية , او رسول الله في مكان الله نفسه وافعاله لا تتنافي مع كرامة وروحانية المهمة



http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=399&letter=M&search=memra



اي ان الممرا هو كلمة وقوة وعقل الله المتجسد

ومن يريد ملف الميمرا ايضا بالكامل في نهاية المقال



ثالثا معني الشيكينا في الترجوم

In the Targumim.

The majestic presence or manifestation of God which has descended to "dwell" among men. Like Memra (= "word"; "logos") and "Yeḳara" (i.e., "Kabod" = "glory"), the term was used by the Rabbis in place of "God" where the anthropomorphic expressions of the Bible were no longer regarded as proper (see Anthropomorphism).

الشيكينا هو عظمة حضور او ظهور الله ونزوله وحلوله بين البشر مثل الميمرا التي تساوي الكلمه اي اللوغوس ويكارا اي كبود تساوي مجد

هذا اللفظ استخدم بالربوات في مكان كلمة الله

( اي ان الميمرا او اللغوغوس تعني الله )

The word itself is taken from such passages as speak of God dwelling either in the Tabernacle or among the people of Israel (see Ex. xxv. 8, xxix. 45-46; Num. v. 3, xxxv. 34; I Kings vi. 13; Ezek. xliii. 9; Zech. ii. 14 [A. V. 10]). Occasionally the name of God is spoken of as descending (Deut. xii. 11; xiv. 23; xvi. 6, 11; xxvi. 2; Neh. i. 9). It is especially said that God dwells in Jerusalem (Zech. viii. 3; Ps. cxxxv. 21; I Chron. xxiii. 25), on Mount Zion (Isa. viii. 18; Joel iv. [A. V. iii.] 17, 21; Ps. xv. 1, lxxiv. 2), and in the Temple itself (Ezek. xliii. 7). Allusion is made also to "him that dwelt in the bush" (Deut. xxxiii. 16, ); and it is said that "the glory of the Lord abode upon Mount Sinai" (Ex. xxiv. 16).

الكلمة نفسها اخذت من اعداد تتكلم عن بيت الله مثل خيمة الاجتماع او بين الشعب في اسرائيل

خروج

25: 8 فيصنعون لي مقدسا لاسكن في وسطهم

29: 45 و اسكن في وسط بني اسرائيل و اكون لهم الها

29: 46 فيعلمون اني انا الرب الههم الذي اخرجهم من ارض مصر لاسكن في وسطهم انا الرب الههم

عدد

35: 34 و لا تنجسوا الارض التي انتم مقيمون فيها التي انا ساكن في وسطها اني انا الرب ساكن في وسط بني اسرائيل

ملوك الاول

6: 13 و اسكن في وسط بني اسرائيل و لا اترك شعبي اسرائيل

حزقيال

43: 9 فليبعدوا عني الان زناهم و جثث ملوكهم فاسكن في وسطهم الى الابد

زكريا

2: 10 ترنمي و افرحي يا بنت صهيون لاني هانذا اتي و اسكن في وسطك يقول الرب



فيتكلم الله عن نزوله

تثنية

16: 6 بل في المكان الذي يختاره الرب الهك ليحل اسمه فيه هناك تذبح الفصح مساء نحو غروب الشمس في ميعاد خروجك من مصر

16: 7 و تطبخ و تاكل في المكان الذي يختاره الرب الهك ثم تنصرف في الغد و تذهب الى خيامك

16: 8 ستة ايام تاكل فطيرا و في اليوم السابع اعتكاف للرب الهك لا تعمل فيه عملا

16: 9 سبعة اسابيع تحسب لك من ابتداء المنجل في الزرع تبتدئ ان تحسب سبعة اسابيع

16: 10 و تعمل عيد اسابيع للرب الهك على قدر ما تسمح يدك ان تعطي كما يباركك الرب الهك

16: 11 و تفرح امام الرب الهك انت و ابنك و ابنتك و عبدك و امتك و اللاوي الذي في ابوابك و الغريب و اليتيم و الارملة الذين في وسطك في المكان الذي يختاره الرب الهك ليحل اسمه فيه





وبخاصه نزوله في اورشليم

زكريا

8: 3 هكذا قال الرب قد رجعت الى صهيون و اسكن في وسط اورشليم فتدعى اورشليم مدينة الحق و جبل رب الجنود الجبل المقدس

علي جبل صهيون

وفي الهيكل نفسه



وهو نفس مجده علي جبل سيناء

خروج

24: 16 و حل مجد الرب على جبل سيناء و غطاه السحاب ستة ايام و في اليوم السابع دعي موسى من وسط السحاب





Nature of the Shekinah.

Maimonides ("Moreh," i. 28 [Munk's translation, "Guide des Egarés," i. 58, 73, 88, 286, 288; iii. 43, 93]; Maybaum, l.c. pp. 5, 34) regarded the Shekinah, like the Memra, the Yeḳara, and the Logos, as a distinct entity, and as a light created to be an intermediary between God and the world; while Naḥmanides (Maybaum, l.c.), on the other hand, considered it the essence of God as manifested in a distinct form.

طبيعة الشيكينا

قال عنها مامونديس

الشيكينا تشبه الميمرا و اليكارا واللوغوس هيئه مميزه من نور ليكون وسيط بين الله والعالم

وقال عنها نهامنديس

اعتبرها ظهور جوهر الله بطبيعه مميزه



To Whom Does the Shekinah Appear?

لمن ستظهر الشكينا

It appeared on the day on which the Tabernacle was first erected (Num. R. xiii.). Before the Israelites sinned the Shekinah rested on every one; but when they did evil it disappeared (Soṭah 3b). Among the transgressions which have this result are the shedding of blood (Yoma 84b) and idolatry, (Meg. 15b; others are cited in Soṭah 42a; Kallah, end; Ber. 5b, 27b; Shab. 33a;, and Sanh. 106a). Whosoever sins in secret or walks with a proud and haughty bearing "crowds out the feet of the Shekinah" (Ḥag. 16a; Ber. 43b; comp. ib. 59a).

ستظهر لليهود يوم نصب خيمة الاجتماع

وينتج عنها نزف دم بين الاثمه

ويظهر عند قدميه خطايا المتكبر



كمالة الملف الموضوع من الموسوعه اليهودية ايضا في اخر الملف





رابعا مفهوم اللوغوس عند اليهود



; see Messiah).

"Wisdom" of God.

اللوغوس هو حكمة الله

.

Philo is the philosopher who boldly, though not always consistently, attempts to harmonize the supramundane existence and majesty of the one God with His being the Creator and Governor of all. Reverting to the Old Testament idiom, according to which "by the word of Yhwh were the heavens made" (Ps. xxxiii. [xxxii.] 6)—which passage is also at the root of the Targumic use of Memra, (see Anthropomorphism)—and on the whole but not consistently assuming that matter was uncreated (see Creation), he introduces the Logos as the mediating agent between God on high and the phenomenal world.

يعبر عنها بكلمة يهوه التي كونت السموات التي يعود جزورها الي الميمرا في التلمود وهو الوسيط بين الله العلي وبين العالم المعروف



Philo's Logos.

Philo is also the first Jewish writer who undertakes to prove the existence of God. His arguments are of two kinds: those drawn from nature, and those supplied by the intuitions of the soul.

قال عنها فيلوا المعلم اليهودي

هو يعبر عن وجود الله وخلافه كان علي طبيعة الله وهؤلاء الذين يقدمون بديهية الروح

In the Targumim.

اللوغوس في الترجوم

The care with which anthropomorphisms are avoided in the Targumim is not due to dogmatic zeal in emphasizing the transcendental character of the Godhead,

هي تعبر عن راس الله ( عقل الله )



وبقية الموضوع من الموسوعه اليهودية ايضا في نهاية الملف





ظهور يهوه في العليقه لموسي


The name commonly given to the tree from which the angel of Jehovah manifested himself to Moses in a flame of fire; the distinctive feature of the revelation being that the tree was not consumed (Ex. iii. 2-4).


Read more:
http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=1610&letter=B&search=THE BURNING BUSH#ixzz0jWUNGixl





وتعبيرات اليكسندر فيلوسفر

عن طبيعة الله وظهوره عن المسيا




http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=281&letter=P



the "name of God," also the "heavenly Adam" (comp. "De Confusione Linguarum," § 11 [i. 411]), the "man, the word of the eternal God." The Logos is also designated as "high priest," in reference to the exalted position which the high priest occupied after the Exile as the real center of the Jewish state. The Logos, like the high priest, is the expiator of sins, and the mediator and advocate for men: ("Quis Rerum Divinarum Heres Sit," § 42 [i. 501], and ("De Vita Mosis," iii. 14 [ii. 155]). From Alexandrian theology Philo borrowed the idea of wisdom as the mediator; he thereby somewhat confused his doctrine of the Logos, regarding wisdom as the higher principle from which the Logos proceeds, and again coordinating it with the latter.

Messiah is the Son,( bar - like Bar Mitzvah. ) and the King


Talmud - Mas. Sukkah 52a


http://www.headcoverings-by-devorah.com/YetzerHaRa_Sukkah_52a_b.html



التلمود يوضح ان المسيا سيكون ابن الله المزمور الثاني




وهذا مفهوم الوحدانيه عند اليهود



. القاعدة الثانية وحدته تعالى. وذلك أن هذا علة الكل واحد، ليس كواحد الجنس ولا كواحد النوع، ولا كالشخص الواحد المركب الذي هو ينقسم لآحاد كثيرة، ولا واحد كالجسم البسيط الواحد بالعدد الذي يقبل الانقسام والتجزؤ إلى ما لا نهاية، بل هو تعالى واحد بوحدة ليس كمثلها وحدة بوجه. وهذه القاعدة الثانية هي المدلول عليها بقوله اِعْلَمْ يَا إِسْرَائِيلَ إِنَّ اللهَ رَبُّنَا اللهُ لوَاحِدُ (التثنية 6:4 ترجمة كتاب التاج)



http://www.aslalyahud.org/subpage.php?id=13





خامسا مفهوم اليهود من موقع اليهود المسيانيين

وتاكيدهم ان هذا هو المفهوم اليهودي القديم

ويؤكدون ان المسيا هو الامل اليهودي

وهو روح الله المتحرك علي الارض كما كتب في تكوين

وهو ظهور الله وسط شعبه

وهو ايضا يمثل الخليقه الجديده

وهو سيكون ابن داوود بالجسد

وهو شيلوه اي الله المنتظر

واقوال عديده من الرباي اليهود والتلمود







http://www.hebrew4christians.net/Names_of_G-d/Messiah/messiah.html





مخطوطه من مكتبة قمران تشرح مفهوم اليهود عن المسيح قبل مجيؤه



أولاً : نبذة عن المخطوطة

The Florilegium

4Q174

اربعه تعني رقم الكهف فهي من الكهف الرابع من مجموعة 11 كهف لقمران

الحرف هو بداية كلمة قمران الانجليزية Qumran

174 هو تسلسل المخطوطه في المخطوطات التي وجدت في هذا الكهف

يرجع تاريخها الي القرن الاول قبل الميلاد ولكن التحليل الداخلي لاسلوب الكتابه يوضح انها منقوله عن كتابه اقدم من ذلك بكثير لانها تتكلم عن المعبد اليهودي الثاني الذي بني بعد هدم الاول

مكتوبه بالعبري

Brooks and Michael Knibb

هو شرح ادبي يهودي لاعداد من العهد القديم

وهو نوع اسمه

Midrash

من المدراش اليهودي هو اسلوب شرح للانجيل ولمفهوم اليهود الرسمي عن التنخ اي العهد القديم Nthology

او الادب الذي يتكلم عن نهاية الازمنة و يتكلم عن مجيئ المسيح الرئيس

للتحليل الداخلي ساورد ما ذكره جيسون وود كملخص لابحاث الدارسين في هذه المخطوطه ونشر بتاريخ 30 – 10 - 1999

http://home.ccil.org/~wood/writings/religionstudies/the_florilegium.pdf

اسلوب كلامه يفرق بين نوعين شعبي اسرائيل والاعداء هو اي انسان غير اسرائيلي فهو يتكلم عن شعب يهوه فقط ويتكلم عن المعبد اليهودي الثاني الذي بني وايضا الثالث الذي سيستمر الي الابد

والفرق بين الثاني والثالث ان الثاني هو مثل الاول مبني والثالث الذي سيبني بيد الله

هو هيكل الانسان وهو المعبد الحقيقي

وهو شرح للذي موجود في 2 صم

7: 12 متى كملت ايامك و اضطجعت مع ابائك اقيم بعدك نسلك الذي يخرج من احشائك و اثبت مملكته

7: 13 هو يبني بيتا لاسمي و انا اثبت كرسي مملكته الى الابد

فهو يشير الي المسيا الخارج من نسل داوود وهو يعبر عنه بمسيا اسرائيل رئيس الرؤساء الذي سينقذ اسرائيل



النص الاصلي العبري

מגילת פלורילגיום (4Q 174)
קומראן, מערה 4
המחצית השנייה של המאה ה-1 לפני הספירה
קלף
רשות העתיקות
מספר רישום: 2003.23(274)



פרסומים:
צלמונה, יגאל (עורך), 40 יצירות-מופת של יופי וקדושה מאוסף מוזיאון ישראל, מוזיאון ישראל, ירושלים, 2005
יופי וקדושה: מוזיאון ישראל חוגג 40. סדרת תערוכות לרגל חגיגות ה-40 של מוזיאון ישראל, ירושלים, 2006

תערוכות:
סוד ההיכל: בעקבות מגילת המקדש, מוזיאון ישראל, ירושלים, אביב תשס"ג-תשס"ד (2004-2003)
תצוגת קבע היכל הספר, מוזיאון ישראל, ירושלים, 01/06/2004 - היום
יופי וקדושה: יצירות-מופת מכל הזמנים, מוזיאון ישראל, ירושלים, אביב-קיץ תשס"ה



http://www.imj.org.il/imagine/collections/itemH.asp?itemNum=311055

وصورة الصفحه الاولي منها



وترجمته

4QFlorilegium (4Q174)

Col. I (Frgs. 1-3)

[I will appoint a place for my people Israel and will plant them in order that they may dwell there and no more be troubled by their] enemies. No son of iniquity [will afflict them again] as before, from the day that 2 [I set judges] over my people Israel (2 Sam 7:10). This is the house which [       in the] last days according as it is written in the book 3 [             the sanctuary, O Lord,] which your hands have established, Yahweh shall reign for ever and ever (Exod 15:17-18) This is the house in which [    ] shall not enter there 4 [   f]orever, nor the Ammonite, the Moabite, nor the bastard, nor the foreigner, nor the stranger forever because there shall be the ones who bear the holy name 5 [f]orever. Continually it will appear above it. And strangers will no longer destroy it as they previously destroyed 6 the sanctuary of Israel because of its sins. He commanded that a sanctuary of men be built for himself in order to offer up to him like the smoke of incense 7 the works of the Law. And according to his words to David, (2 "And I [will give] you [rest] from all your enemies" (2 Sam 7:11). This means that he will give them rest from a[ll] 8 the sons of Belial, who cause them to stumble to destroy them [       ] according as they come with a plan of [B]el[i]al to cause the s[ons of] 9 light to stumble, to think upon them wicked plans in order to deli[ver] his [s]oul to Belial in their w[ic]ked error. 10 [And] Yahweh has [de]clared to you that he will build you a house (2 Sam 7:11c). I will raise up your seed after you (2 Sam 7:12). I will establish the throne of his kingdom 11 f[orever] (2 Sam 7:13). I wi[ll be] a father to me and he shall be a son to me (2 Sam 7:14). He is the branch of David who will arise with the interpreter of the Law who 12 [      ] in Zi[on in the la]st days according as it is written: "I will raise up the tent of 13 David that has falle[n] (Amos 9:11), who will arise to save Israel. 14 An in[ter]pretation of "Blessed is [the] man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked" (Ps 1:1). Interpretation of the wor[d concerns] those who depart from the way [       ] 15 which is written in the Book of Isaiah the prophet for the last [d]ays, "It happened that with a strong [hand he turned me aside from walking on the path] of 16 this people" (Isa 8:11). And they are those about whom it is written in the Book of Ezekiel the prophet, "[They should] not [defile themselves any longer with all] 17 their idols (Ezek 37:23; see 44:10). These are the sons of Zadok and the m[e]n of his his cou[ns]el [    ] after them to the council of the community. 18 "[Why] do the nations [rag]e and the people im[agine] a vain thing? [Kings of the earth] ris[e up] and [and p]rinces conspire together against Yahweh and against [his anointed] (Ps 2:1-2). 19 [In]terpretation of the saying [concerns na]tions and th[ey    ] the chosen of Israel in the last days.

Col. 2 (Frgs. 1-3)

This is the time of the trial that c[omes J]udah to complete [      ] 2 Belial, and a remnant will remain [l]ot and they do all the Law [      ] 3 Moses. It is [       a]s it is written in the Book of Daniel, "The wicked [act wickedly]" 4a and the righteous [       shall be made wh]ite and be purified (Dan 12:10) And a people who know God will remain strong [       ] . After [      ] which is for them [       ] in their descent.



وترجمته

سوف اختار مكان لشعبي اسرائيل وازرعهم لكي يقيموا هناك ولا يزعجهم اعداؤهم . ولن يحزنهم ابن الظلم ثانية. وسارسل قاضي لشعبي اسرائيل . هذا البيت الذي يكون في اواخر الايام كما هو مكتوب في كتاب موسي المقدس يارب الذي ستثبته بيدك يايهوه وتملك عليهم الي ابد الابدين كما كتب في خروج. وهذا البيت لايدخله ابدا عموني ولا مؤابي ولا ابن زني ولا اجنبي ولا غريب لان الذي يحمل الاسم المقدس سيكون هناك الي الابد . والي الابد تظهر فوقه . والغرباء لاتستطيع تحطيمه مثلما حطموه من قبل . بسبب اخطاء اسرائيل. هو امر ان يبني له جسد مقدس لنفسه ليقدم له البخور المقدس حسب ما قال لداوود سوف اريحك من كل اعداءك في كتاب صموئيل

ويكمل ويقول انه ساكون له اب وهو يكون لي ابن وهو ياتي من فرع داوود الذي سيقوم لينقذ اسرائيل



وحتي الان تاكيد واضح ان المفهوم اليهودي القديم عن المسيا هو ظهور الله ظهور يهوه و عقل الله وحكمة الله وكلمة الله الخالق والجسد الذي سيتخذه الله وروح الله ونور الله





ومخطوطه هامه جدا ايضا من منتصف القرن الاول قبل الميلاد

من مجموعة مخطوطات قواعد الحرب

مكتوبه بالنص العبري

صورتها



4Q285

وترجمتها الانجليزي



  1. ]Isaiah the prophet: [The thickets of the forest] will be cut [down

  2. with an axe and Lebanon by a majestic one will f]all. And there shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse [

  3. ] the Branch of David and they will enter into judgement with [

  4. ] and the Prince of the Congregation, the Bran[ch of David] will kill him [

  5. by stroke]s and by wounds. And a Priest [of renown (?)] will command [

  6. the s]lai[n] of the Kitti[m]



وهي تقول ان نبوة اشعياء

سيخرج فرع من جزع يسي وينبت فرع من داوود وسيدخل الي المحاكمه بواسطة رئيس الكهنة

وسيقتل فرع داوود بالضرب والجراح . ورئيس الكهنة لاجل صيته سوف يامر ....



والمشهور عن هذه المخطوطه انها باسم المسايا المثقوب

"Pierced Messiah"



حاول البعض الادعاء بانها من القرن الاول الميلادي ولكن ثابت انها من الفكر اليهودي قبل الميلاد

حاول البعض ايضا تغيير الترجمه والادعاء بان المسيا سيقتل رئيس الكهنة لكنهم لم يجدوا حل لاسم المخطوطه وهو ثقوب المسيا او المسيا المثقوب



مخطوطه ثالثه

اسمها

After Babylon Look for the Messiah

ويقول

The divine mission of the Messiah

مهمة المسايا الالهية

ويتكلم فيها عن ارجاع اسرائل منذ ان دعي من البطن



سابعا مفهوم العهد القديم عن المسيا


الايات الانجيليه



بدون شرح مني الا فقط لتوضيح بعض معاني الكلمات من القواميس

هذا لتاكدي من وضوح الايات



تكوين 49


10
لاَ يَزُولُ قَضِيبٌ مِنْ يَهُوذَا وَمُشْتَرِعٌ مِنْ بَيْنِ رِجْلَيْهِ حَتَّى يَأْتِيَ شِيلُونُ وَلَهُ يَكُونُ خُضُوعُ شُعُوبٍ.

إن شلون اسم يشير إلى المسيا الذي يأتي من نسل يهوذا. فإن يعقوب في نبؤته رأى أن رأوبين بسبب خطيئته قد فقد البركة والبكورية. ثم شمعون ولاوي فقداها أيضاً بسبب خطيئتهما. فنقلت البركة والبكورية ليهوذا.

تنقسم الكلمة ((شيلوه)) إلى ثلاث مقاطع ((شي)) و ((ل)) و ((وه)). ومعنى العبارة هو: ((الذي له)) كما يظهر أيضاً من حز 21: 27. وتتفق هذه مع الترجمة السبعينية. وهذا الرأي أيضاً يعود بناءاً إلى فكرة انتظار المسيا. وترجمتها التفسيرية هي:
((
حتى يأتي المسيا إلى ما يخصه)).


معني شيلوه

وهو المسيا من المراجع اليهودية

References:    (1)Genesis 49:8-10 (2)Midrash Rabbah Genesis 98:3 (3)J.W. Ethridye, The Targum of Onkels & Jonathan Ben Uzzicl on the Pentateuch with The Fragments of the Jerusalem Targum from the Chaldee(KTAV 1968) [hereafter referred to as Eth-eridge] p.329; John Bowker, The Targums & Rabbinic Literature: An Introduction to Jewish Interpretation of Scripture (Cambridge 1969) p. 277. (4)Ezekiel 21:27  (5)See F.theridye, p.152  (6)Ibid at p.331.  (7)Sanhedrin 98b  (8)Midrash Rabbah Genesis 98:7  (9)Yalkut 160; see Alfred Edersheim. The Life & Times of Jesus the Messiah (Wm. B. Eerdmans 1977) p.712. (10)II Kings 25:7 (11)Rosh Hashanah 3lb  (12)Yoma 39b (13)The Hebrew word translated ensign is nes. Nes is usually translated miracle. (14)Isaiah 2:2; Micah 4:1 (15)Jonah 4:11 (16)Zechariah 8:23.

http://www.menorah.org/jnstmp6.html


السبعينية

49:10 A ruler shall not fail from Juda, nor a prince from his loins, until there come the things stored up for him; and he is the expectation of nations.


قاموس استرونج

H7886

שׁילה

shı̂ylôh

shee-lo'

From H7951; tranquil; Shiloh, an epithet of the Messiah: - Shiloh.


قاموس برون

H7886

שׁילה

shı̂ylôh

BDB Definition:

1) he whose it is, that which belongs to him, tranquillity

1a) meaning uncertain

Part of Speech: noun?

A Related Word by BDB/Strong’s Number: from H7951



- زوال القضيب!

لَا يَزُولُ قَضِيبٌ مِنْ يَهُوذَا وَمُشْتَرِعٌ مِنْ بَيْنِ رِجْلَيْهِ حَتَّى يَأْتِيَ شِيلُونُ وَلَهُ يَكُونُ خُضُوعُ شُعُوبٍ " تكوين 49: 10 " .

وكلمة قضيب تعني عصا السبط أو القبيلة . وقد كان لكل سبط من أسباط إسرائيل الاثنى عشر عصا كُتب عليها اسمه. وهذه الآية تعني أن عصا سبط يهوذا لن تزول حتى يجيء شيلون. وقد رأى علماء اليهود والمسيحيين في اسم شيلون اسماً من أسماء المسيا الآتي .


والراشي اليهودي ايضا يعلق علي شيلوه ويقول


Genesis 49:10 and the Messiah

By: Menachem

In this article we are going to discuss Genesis 49
:10 and what it really talks about. First I want to post the Hebrew text with translation along with the Aramaic Targums Onkelos and Yonatan/Yerushalami and for the sake of comparison I will post the KJV version of this verse. This will give us some insight on the view of this particular verse and how it was interpreted originally. I will also give Rashi’s comments on this matter.

Genesis 49:10 (KJV):
The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be.

Genesis 49:10(Hebrew):
לֹא-יָסוּר שֵׁבֶט מִיהוּדָה וּמְחֹקֵק מִבֵּין רַגְלָיו עַד כִּי-יָבֹא שִׁילֹה וְלוֹ יִקְּהַת עַמִּים:

Translation (Hebrew):
The Scepter shall not depart from Judah nor a scholar from their midst until he arrives at Shiloh and to him will be the obedience of the peoples.

Genesis 49:10(Onkelos):
לָא יְעִידֵי עָבֵיד שׁוּלטָן מִדְבֵית יְהוּדָה וְסָפְרָא מִבְנֵי בְנוֹהִי עַד עָלְמָא עַד דְיֵיתֵי מְשִׁיחָא דְדִילֵיה הִיא מַלכוּתָא וְלֵיה יִשׁתַמעוּן עַמְמַיָא׃

Translation (Onkelos):
The right to exercise Dominion shall not pass from the house of Judah and the scribe from his descendants for ever and ever, until the messiah arrives to whom the kingdom belongs and to whom the obedience of peoples is due.

Genesis 49:10(Yonatan/Yerushalami)
לא פסקין מלכין ושליטין מדבית יהודה וספרין מאלפי אורייתא מזרעיה עד זמן די ייתי מלכא משיחא זעיר בנוי ובדיליה יתימסון עממייא:

Translation (Yonatan/Yerushalami):
[The line of] kings shall not cease, nor will rulers, from the house of Judah, nor sages teaching the Torah from his descendants, until the time that the king messiah comes from his children; and on his behalf the people will come together.

The word
וּמְחֹקֵק is rendered quite often as “Staff” in many Jewish translations. This is quite annoying and we are going to give a better rendering of “Scholar” along with support from other sources listed above. The Aramaic Targums are very crucial to understanding the proper interpretation of this particular verse and to lend credibility to the translation of וּמְחֹקֵק as “Scholar” and not “Staff.” The Targums lend this credibility due to their own rendering of this in a similar fashion as either “scribe” or “sages” using the words סָפְרָא and ספרין respectively (English word order). The KJV even recognizes that this word is not “staff” but renders it as “Lawgiver” in accordance with the view of “Scholar/Scribe/Sages.”


Rashi’s comments on Genesis 49:10:
Rashi does a similar thing yet he explains it even further in his comments on certain words. For the sake of accuracy I will give Rashi’s comments in the Hebrew script and a translation of such.

Rashi:
עַד כִּי יָבא שִילׂה:
מלך המשיח שהמלוכה שלו. וכן תרגמו אונקלוס. ומדרש אגדה שילו שי לו שנאמר (תהלים עו) יובילו שי למורא:

Translation of Rashi:
until he arrives at Shiloh: the King Messiah, to whom the kingdom belongs (שֶׁלוֹ). And Yes! Onkelos [renders this also]. According to the Midrash Aggadah, “Shiloh (שילה)” [is a combination of] שַׁי לוֹ, a gift to him, as it is said: “They will bring a gift to him who is to be feared” (Ps. 76:12).

Ramban:
עד כי יבא שילה ולו יקהת כל העמים: לעשות בכולם כרצונו, וזהו המשיח, כי השבט ירמוז לדוד שהוא המלך הראשון אשר לו שבט מלכות ושילה הוא בנו אשר לו יקהת העמים.

Translation of Ramban:
Until he comes to Shiloh and to him will be the obedience of peoples: When he will be able to do as he pleases with all of the nations. This is referring to the Messiah. The Scepter [here] refers to David for he was the first king who had the royal scepter. “Shiloh” refers to his son to whom there will be obedience from the nations.


I think these are sufficient for the sake of this article. According to Rashi’s and Ramaban’s rationale they considered this to be a reference to the King Messiah as they largely agree with Onkelos’ interpretive rendering of this verse.



عدد 24

17 أَرَاهُ وَلكِنْ لَيْسَ الآنَ. أُبْصِرُهُ وَلكِنْ لَيْسَ قَرِيبًا. يَبْرُزُ كَوْكَبٌ مِنْ يَعْقُوبَ، وَيَقُومُ قَضِيبٌ مِنْ إِسْرَائِيلَ، فَيُحَطِّمُ طَرَفَيْ مُوآبَ، وَيُهْلِكُ كُلَّ بَنِي الْوَغَى.



تثنية 18

15 «يُقِيمُ لَكَ الرَّبُّ إِلهُكَ نَبِيًّا مِنْ وَسَطِكَ مِنْ إِخْوَتِكَ مِثْلِي. لَهُ تَسْمَعُونَ.
16
حَسَبَ كُلِّ مَا طَلَبْتَ مِنَ الرَّبِّ إِلهِكَ فِي حُورِيبَ يَوْمَ الاجْتِمَاعِ قَائِلاً: لاَ أَعُودُ أَسْمَعُ صَوْتَ الرَّبِّ إِلهِي وَلاَ أَرَى هذِهِ النَّارَ الْعَظِيمَةَ أَيْضًا لِئَلاَّ أَمُوتَ.
17
قَالَ لِيَ الرَّبُّ: قَدْ أَحْسَنُوا فِي مَا تَكَلَّمُوا.
18
أُقِيمُ لَهُمْ نَبِيًّا مِنْ وَسَطِ إِخْوَتِهِمْ مِثْلَكَ، وَأَجْعَلُ كَلاَمِي فِي فَمِهِ، فَيُكَلِّمُهُمْ بِكُلِّ مَا أُوصِيهِ بِهِ.
19
وَيَكُونُ أَنَّ الإِنْسَانَ الَّذِي لاَ يَسْمَعُ لِكَلاَمِي الَّذِي يَتَكَلَّمُ بِهِ بِاسْمِي أَنَا أُطَالِبُهُ.
20
وَأَمَّا النَّبِيُّ الَّذِي يُطْغِي، فَيَتَكَلَّمُ بِاسْمِي كَلاَمًا لَمْ أُوصِهِ أَنْ يَتَكَلَّمَ بِهِ، أَوِ الَّذِي يَتَكَلَّمُ بِاسْمِ آلِهَةٍ أُخْرَى، فَيَمُوتُ ذلِكَ النَّبِيُّ.



قضاه 13

18 فَقَالَ لَهُ مَلاَكُ الرَّبِّ: «لِمَاذَا تَسْأَلُ عَنِ اسْمِي وَهُوَ عَجِيبٌ؟». 19 فَأَخَذَ مَنُوحُ جَدْيَ الْمِعْزَى وَالتَّقْدِمَةَ وَأَصْعَدَهُمَا عَلَى الصَّخْرَةِ لِلرَّبِّ. فَعَمِلَ عَمَلاً عَجِيبًا وَمَنُوحُ وَامْرَأَتُهُ يَنْظُرَانِ. 20 فَكَانَ عِنْدَ صُعُودِ اللَّهِِيبِ عَنِ الْمَذْبَحِ نَحْوَ السَّمَاءِ، أَنَّ مَلاَكَ الرَّبِّ صَعِدَ فِي لَهِيبِ الْمَذْبَحِ، وَمَنُوحُ وَامْرَأَتُهُ يَنْظُرَانِ. فَسَقَطَا عَلَى وَجْهَيْهِمَا إِلَى الأَرْضِ. 21 وَلَمْ يَعُدْ مَلاَكُ الرَّبِّ يَتَرَاءَى لِمَنُوحَ وَامْرَأَتِهِ. حِينَئِذٍ عَرَفَ مَنُوحُ أَنَّهُ مَلاَكُ الرَّبِّ. 22 فَقَالَ مَنُوحُ لامْرَأَتِهِ: «نَمُوتُ مَوْتًا لأَنَّنَا قَدْ رَأَيْنَا اللهَ»



كلام رجل الله لعالي الكاهن عن صموئيل الكاهن



سفر صموئيل الأول 2: 35


وَأُقِيمُ لِنَفْسِي كَاهِنًا أَمِينًا يَعْمَلُ حَسَبَ مَا بِقَلْبِي وَنَفْسِي، وَأَبْنِي لَهُ بَيْتًا أَمِينًا فَيَسِيرُ أَمَامَ مَسِيحِي كُلَّ الأَيَّامِ.

ولم يكن هناك ملك ممسوح



سفر المزامير 2: 2


قَامَ مُلُوكُ الأَرْضِ، وَتَآمَرَ الرُّؤَسَاءُ مَعًا عَلَى الرَّبِّ وَعَلَى مَسِيحِهِ، قَائِلِينَ:

له لقب مميز ان اسمه المسيح الرئيس وليس مسيح الرب واوضحت سابقا ان اليهود يفهمون هذا العدد علي انه المسيح وسلطانه



مزمزر 45

فَاضَ قَلْبِي بِكَلاَمٍ صَالِحٍ. مُتَكَلِّمٌ أَنَا بِإِنْشَائِي لِلْمَلِكِ. لِسَانِي قَلَمُ كَاتِبٍ مَاهِرٍ.

2 أَنْتَ أَبْرَعُ جَمَالاً مِنْ بَنِي الْبَشَرِ. انْسَكَبَتِ النِّعْمَةُ عَلَى شَفَتَيْكَ، لِذلِكَ بَارَكَكَ اللهُ إِلَى الأَبَدِ. 3 تَقَلَّدْ سَيْفَكَ عَلَى فَخْذِكَ أَيُّهَا الْجَبَّارُ، جَلاَلَكَ وَبَهَاءَكَ. 4 وَبِجَلاَلِكَ اقْتَحِمِ. ارْكَبْ. مِنْ أَجْلِ الْحَقِّ وَالدَّعَةِ وَالْبِرِّ، فَتُرِيَكَ يَمِينُكَ مَخَاوِفَ. 5 نَبْلُكَ الْمَسْنُونَةُ فِي قَلْبِ أَعْدَاءِ الْمَلِكِ. شُعُوبٌ تَحْتَكَ يَسْقُطُونَ.

6 كُرْسِيُّكَ يَا اَللهُ إِلَى دَهْرِ الدُّهُورِ. قَضِيبُ اسْتِقَامَةٍ قَضِيبُ مُلْكِكَ. 7 أَحْبَبْتَ الْبِرَّ وَأَبْغَضْتَ الإِثْمَ، مِنْ أَجْلِ ذلِكَ مَسَحَكَ اللهُ إِلهُكَ بِدُهْنِ الابْتِهَاجِ أَكْثَرَ مِنْ رُفَقَائِكَ.

مزمور 110

4 أَقْسَمَ الرَّبُّ وَلَنْ يَنْدَمَ: «أَنْتَ كَاهِنٌ إِلَى الأَبَدِ عَلَى رُتْبَةِ مَلْكِي صَادَقَ».



الحكمة 2

10 لنجر على الفقير الصديق ولا نشفق على الارملة ولا نهب شيبة الشيخ الكثير الايام
11 ولتكن قوتنا هي شريعة العدل فانه من الثابت ان الضعف لا يغني شيئا
12 ولنكمن للصديق فانه ثقيل علينا يقاوم اعمالنا ويقرعنا على مخالفتنا للناموس ويفضح ذنوب سيرتنا
13 يزعم ان عنده علم الله ويسمي نفسه ابن الرب



سفر الأمثال 30: 4


مَنْ صَعِدَ إِلَى السَّمَاوَاتِ وَنَزَلَ؟ مَنْ جَمَعَ الرِّيحَ في حَفْنَتَيْهِ؟ مَنْ صَرَّ الْمِيَاهَ في ثَوْبٍ؟ مَنْ ثَبَّتَ جَمِيعَ أَطْرَافِ الأَرْضِ؟ مَا اسْمُهُ؟ وَمَا اسْمُ ابْنِهِ إِنْ عَرَفْتَ؟



اشعياء 7 : 14

ولكن يعطيكم السيد نفسه آية.ها العذراء تحبل وتلد ابنا وتدعو اسمه عمانوئيل


اشعياء 9 : 6

6 لانه يولد لنا ولد ونعطى ابنا وتكون الرياسة على كتفه ويدعى اسمه عجيبا مشيرا الها قديرا ابا ابديا رئيس السلام



وتعليق الراشي اليهودي علي هذا العدد

the Lord, of His own, shall give you a sign: He will give you a sign by Himself, against Your will.

اي ان الايه ستكون الله نفسه التي سيصنعها بنفسه ( وليس من خلال انبياء او ملائكه ) وستكون مضاده لارادتكم

ودليل اخر من الفكر اليهودي علي ان هذا العدد شهاده علي لاهوت المسيا

مناحيم

يقول الراشي

At first I would like to talk about Daniel 7:13-14and how it is applied. First let’s start with the quote.Daniel 7:13-14

“I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like a son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. 14. And there he was given dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.

Now I will post the Aramaic to help explain a few things in this verse:

חזה הוית בחזוי ליליא וארו עם-ענני כבר אנש אתה הוה ועד- עתיק יומיא מטה וקדמוהי הקרבוהי: ולה יהיב שלטן ויקר ומלכו וכל עממיא אמיא ולשניא לה יפלחון שלטנה שלטן עלם די-לא יעדה ומלכותה די-לא תתחבך

First I want tell you about some of the popular thoughts about this verse.


1) Rashi says this verse is about King Messiah

2) Other commentators say this is about the Nation of IsraelI would first like to deal with the Christian claim of this being about jesus:


1) Now I would like to discuss what Rashi said. Rashi said this was about King Messiah. How would he have arrived to this conclusion. My thought is that he was not looking at the “like a son of man” part but rather the rest of the verse and comparing it to the Aramaic Targum Onkelos of Genesis 49:10. Rashi was taking the part of “14. And there he was given dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed."

He compared this to this:

Genesis 49:10(Targum Onkelos): “The ability to exercise dominion shall not pass away from the house of Judah, nor the sceptre from his children's children for ever, even when the Messiah comes to whom the kingdom belongs, and to him shall be the obedience of the nations (or, whom the peoples shall obey)."


The Aramaic text for Genesis 49:10:Genesis 49:10(Targum Onkelos)

י)לא יעדי עבד שלטן מדבית יהודה וספרא מבני בנוהי עד אלמא דייתי משיחא דדילה היא מלכותא ולה ישתמעון עממיא.

Here we can see Rashi was associating the words Dominion (שלטן) and Kingdom (מלכותא) and (מלכותה) and also the word for Nations/Peoples (עממיא) which is used in both Daniel 7:14and Genesis 49:10(Targum Onkelos).

That I believe is the rationale that Rashi was using when he was associating this with the King Messiah.

2) Many other commentators like to place this verse as to relating to the nation of Israel. For example they place the “Like a son of man” as personification of the Nation of Israel just as it has before (Exodus 4:22). In Exodus 4:22Israel is called “G-d’s first-born son” and is personified all through the Tanakh as a male child.


I can see Rashi’s point about how this can be about King Messiah once the reason and the association is outlined.





اشعياء 11



1 وَيَخْرُجُ قَضِيبٌ مِنْ جِذْعِ يَسَّى، وَيَنْبُتُ غُصْنٌ مِنْ أُصُولِهِ، 2 وَيَحُلُّ عَلَيْهِ رُوحُ الرَّبِّ، رُوحُ الْحِكْمَةِ وَالْفَهْمِ، رُوحُ الْمَشُورَةِ وَالْقُوَّةِ، رُوحُ الْمَعْرِفَةِ وَمَخَافَةِ الرَّبِّ. 3 وَلَذَّتُهُ تَكُونُ فِي مَخَافَةِ الرَّبِّ، فَلاَ يَقْضِي بِحَسَبِ نَظَرِ عَيْنَيْهِ، وَلاَ يَحْكُمُ بِحَسَبِ سَمْعِ أُذُنَيْهِ، 4 بَلْ يَقْضِي بِالْعَدْلِ لِلْمَسَاكِينِ، وَيَحْكُمُ بِالإِنْصَافِ لِبَائِسِي الأَرْضِ، وَيَضْرِبُ الأَرْضَ بِقَضِيبِ فَمِهِ، وَيُمِيتُ الْمُنَافِقَ بِنَفْخَةِ شَفَتَيْهِ. 5 وَيَكُونُ الْبِرُّ مِنْطَقَهَ مَتْنَيْهِ، وَالأَمَانَةُ مِنْطَقَةَ حَقْوَيْهِ.

6 فَيَسْكُنُ الذِّئْبُ مَعَ الْخَرُوفِ، وَيَرْبُضُ النَّمِرُ مَعَ الْجَدْيِ، وَالْعِجْلُ وَالشِّبْلُ وَالْمُسَمَّنُ مَعًا، وَصَبِيٌّ صَغِيرٌ يَسُوقُهَا. 7 وَالْبَقَرَةُ وَالدُّبَّةُ تَرْعَيَانِ. تَرْبُضُ أَوْلاَدُهُمَا مَعًا، وَالأَسَدُ كَالْبَقَرِ يَأْكُلُ تِبْنًا. 8 وَيَلْعَبُ الرَّضِيعُ عَلَى سَرَبِ الصِّلِّ، وَيَمُدُّ الْفَطِيمُ يَدَهُ عَلَى جُحْرِ الأُفْعُوَانِ. 9 لاَ يَسُوؤُونَ وَلاَ يُفْسِدُونَ فِي كُلِّ جَبَلِ قُدْسِي، لأَنَّ الأَرْضَ تَمْتَلِئُ مِنْ مَعْرِفَةِ الرَّبِّ كَمَا تُغَطِّي الْمِيَاهُ الْبَحْرَ. 10 وَيَكُونُ فِي ذلِكَ الْيَوْمِ أَنَّ أَصْلَ يَسَّى الْقَائِمَ رَايَةً لِلشُّعُوبِ، إِيَّاهُ تَطْلُبُ الأُمَمُ، وَيَكُونُ مَحَلُّهُ مَجْدًا.

11 وَيَكُونُ فِي ذلِكَ الْيَوْمِ أَنَّ السَّيِّدَ يُعِيدُ يَدَهُ ثَانِيَةً لِيَقْتَنِيَ بَقِيَّةَ شَعْبِهِ، الَّتِي بَقِيَتْ، مِنْ أَشُّورَ، وَمِنْ مِصْرَ، وَمِنْ فَتْرُوسَ، وَمِنْ كُوشَ، وَمِنْ عِيلاَمَ، وَمِنْ شِنْعَارَ، وَمِنْ حَمَاةَ، وَمِنْ جَزَائِرِ الْبَحْرِ. 12 وَيَرْفَعُ رَايَةً لِلأُمَمِ، وَيَجْمَعُ مَنْفِيِّي إِسْرَائِيلَ، وَيَضُمُّ مُشَتَّتِي يَهُوذَا مِنْ أَرْبَعَةِ أَطْرَافِ الأَرْضِ. 13 فَيَزُولُ حَسَدُ أَفْرَايِمَ، وَيَنْقَرِضُ الْمُضَايِقُونَ مِنْ يَهُوذَا. أَفْرَايِمُ لاَ يَحْسِدُ يَهُوذَا، وَيَهُوذَا لاَ يُضَايِقُ أَفْرَايِمَ. 14 وَيَنْقَضَّانِ عَلَى أَكْتَافِ الْفِلِسْطِينِيِّينَ غَرْبًا، وَيَنْهَبُونَ بَنِي الْمَشْرِقِ مَعًا. يَكُونُ عَلَى أَدُومَ وَمُوآبَ امْتِدَادُ يَدِهِمَا، وَبَنُو عَمُّونَ فِي طَاعَتِهِمَا. 15 وَيُبِيدُ الرَّبُّ لِسَانَ بَحْرِ مِصْرَ، وَيَهُزُّ يَدَهُ عَلَى النَّهْرِ بِقُوَّةِ رِيحِهِ، وَيَضْرِبُهُ إِلَى سَبْعِ سَوَاق، وَيُجِيزُ فِيهَا بِالأَحْذِيَةِ. 16 وَتَكُونُ سِكَّةٌ لِبَقِيَّةِ شَعْبِهِ الَّتِي بَقِيَتْ مِنْ أَشُّورَ، كَمَا كَانَ لإِسْرَائِيلَ يَوْمَ صُعُودِهِ مِنْ أَرْضِ مِصْرَ.



اشعياء

ذراع الرب هو المسيا من المفهوم اليهودي


12)
سفر إشعياء 30: 30


وَيُسَمِّعُ الرَّبُّ جَلاَلَ صَوْتِهِ، وَيُرِي نُزُولَ ذِرَاعِهِ بِهَيَجَانِ غَضَبٍ وَلَهِيبِ نَارٍ آكِلَةٍ، نَوْءٍ وَسَيْل وَحِجَارَةِ بَرَدٍ.



13)
سفر إشعياء 40: 10


هُوَذَا السَّيِّدُ الرَّبُّ بِقُوَّةٍ يَأْتِي وَذِرَاعُهُ تَحْكُمُ لَهُ. هُوَذَا أُجْرَتُهُ مَعَهُ وَعُمْلَتُهُ قُدَّامَهُ.



14)
سفر إشعياء 48: 14


اِجْتَمِعُوا كُلُّكُمْ وَاسْمَعُوا. مَنْ مِنْهُمْ أَخْبَرَ بِهذِهِ؟ قَدْ أَحَبَّهُ الرَّبُّ. يَصْنَعُ مَسَرَّتَهُ بِبَابِلَ، وَيَكُونُ ذِرَاعُهُ عَلَى الْكَلْدَانِيِّينَ.



15)
سفر إشعياء 51: 9


اِسْتَيْقِظِي، اسْتَيْقِظِي! الْبَسِي قُوَّةً يَا ذِرَاعَ الرَّبِّ! اسْتَيْقِظِي كَمَا فِي أَيَّامِ الْقِدَمِ، كَمَا فِي الأَدْوَارِ الْقَدِيمَةِ. أَلَسْتِ أَنْتِ الْقَاطِعَةَ رَهَبَ، الطَّاعِنَةَ التِّنِّينَ؟




16)
سفر إشعياء 52: 10


قَدْ شَمَّرَ الرَّبُّ عَنْ ذِرَاعِ قُدْسِهِ أَمَامَ عُيُونِ كُلِّ الأُمَمِ، فَتَرَى كُلُّ أَطْرَافِ الأَرْضِ خَلاَصَ إِلهِنَا.



17)
سفر إشعياء 53:


53: 1 من صدق خبرنا و لمن استعلنت ذراع الرب

53: 2 نبت قدامه كفرخ و كعرق من ارض يابسة لا صورة له و لا جمال فننظر اليه و لا منظر فنشتهيه

53: 3 محتقر و مخذول من الناس رجل اوجاع و مختبر الحزن و كمستر عنه وجوهنا محتقر فلم نعتد به

53: 4 لكن احزاننا حملها و اوجاعنا تحملها و نحن حسبناه مصابا مضروبا من الله و مذلولا

53: 5 و هو مجروح لاجل معاصينا مسحوق لاجل اثامنا تاديب سلامنا عليه و بحبره شفينا

53: 6 كلنا كغنم ضللنا ملنا كل واحد الى طريقه و الرب وضع عليه اثم جميعنا

53: 7 ظلم اما هو فتذلل و لم يفتح فاه كشاة تساق الى الذبح و كنعجة صامتة امام جازيها فلم يفتح فاه

53: 8 من الضغطة و من الدينونة اخذ و في جيله من كان يظن انه قطع من ارض الاحياء انه ضرب من اجل ذنب شعبي

53: 9 و جعل مع الاشرار قبره و مع غني عند موته على انه لم يعمل ظلما و لم يكن في فمه غش






وتعليق الرابوات علي هذا العدد كثيرا

Rabbi MOSES Alschech(1508-1600) says:
"Our Rabbis with one voice accept and affirm the opinion that the prophet is speaking of the Messiah, and we shall ourselves also adhere to the same view."

Abrabanel (1437-1508) said earlier:
"This is also the opinion of our own learned men in the majority of their Midrashim."

Rabbi Yafeth Ben Ali ( second half of the 10th Century):
"As for myself, I am inclined to regard it as alluding to the Messiah."

Abraham Farissol ( 1451- 1526) says:
"In this chapter there seem to be considerable resemblances and allusions to the work of the Christian Messiah and to the events which are asserted to have happened to Him, so that no other prophecy is to be found the gist and subject of which can be so immediately applied to Him."

Targum Jonathan ( 4th Century ) gives the introduction on Isa. 52:13:
"Behold, my servant the Messiah..."

Gersonides (1288-1344) on Deut. 18:18:
"In fact Messiah is such a prophet, as it is stated in the Midrasch on the verse,'Behold, my servant shall prosper...' (Isa. 52:13)."

Midrash Tanchuma:
"He was more exalted than Abraham, more extolled than Mose, higher than the archangels" (Isa.52:13).

Yalkut Schimeon ( ascribed to Rabbi Simeon Kara, 12th Century ) says on Zech.4:7:
"He ( the king Messiah ) is greater than the patriarchs, as it is said, 'My servant shall be high, and lifted up, and lofty exceedingly' (Isa. 52:13)."

Maimonides (1135-12O4) wrote to Rabbi Jacob Alfajumi:
"Likewise said Isaiah that He (Messiah) would appear without acknowledging a father or mother: 'He grew up before him as a tender plant and as a root out of a dry ground' etc. (Isa.53:2)."

Tanchuma:
"Rabbi Nachman says: ,The Word MAN in the passage, 'Every man a head of the house of his father' (Num.1,4), refers to the Messiah, the son of David, as it is written, 'Behold the man whose name is Zemach'(the Branch) where Jonathan interprets,'Behold the man Messiah' (Zech.6:12); and so it is said,'A man of pains and known to sickness' (Isa.53:3)."

Talmud Sanhedrin (98b):
"Messiah ...what is his name? The Rabbis say,'The leprous one'; those of the house of the Rabbi (Jehuda Hanassi, the author of the Mishna, 135-200) say: 'Cholaja' (The sickly), for it says, 'Surely he has borne our sicknesses' etc. (Isa.53,4)."

Pesiqta Rabbati (ca.845)on Isa. 61,10:
"The world-fathers (patriarchs) will one day in the month of Nisan arise and say to (the Messiah): 'Ephraim, our righteous Anointed, although we are your grandparents, yet you are greater than we, for you have borne the sins of our children, as it says: 'But surely he has borne our sicknesses and carried our pains; yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted. But he was pierced because of our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was laid upon him and through his wounds we are healed'(Isa.53,4-5)."

Rabbi Simeon Ben Jochai (2.Century), Zohar,, part II, page 212a and III, page 218a, Amsterdam Ed.):
"There is in the garden of Eden a palace called : 'The palace of the sons of sickness, <, this palace the Messiah enters, and summons every sickness, every pain, and every chastisement of Israel: they all come and rest upon Him. And were it not that He had thus lightened them off Israel, and taken them upon Himself, there had been no man able to bear Israels chastisement for the transgression of the law; this is that which is written, 'Surely our sicknesses he has carried' Isa.53,4).- As they tell Him (the Messiah) of the misery of Israel in their captivity, and of those wicked ones among them who are not attentive to know their Lord, He lifts up His voice and weeps for their wickedness; and so it is written,'He was wounded for our transgressions' (Isa.53,5). Midrash (on Ruth 2,14): "He is speaking of the King Messiah - 'Come hither', i.e.">Draw near to the throne<; 'eat of the bread', i.e.>, The bread of the kingdom.' This refers to the chastisements<, as it is said, 'But he was wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities' (Isa.53,5). Rabbi Elijah de Vidas (16.Century) :
"The meaning of 'He was wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities' is, that since the Messiah bears our iniquities which produce the ef fect of His being bruised, it follows that whoever will not admit that Messiah thus suffers for our iniquities must endure and suffer for them himself."

Siphre:
"Rabbi Jose the Galilean said, 'Come and learn the merits of the King Messiah and the reward of the Just - from the first man who received but one commandment, a prohibition, and transgressed it. Consider how many deaths were inflicted upon himself, upon his own generation, and upon those who followed them, till the end of all generations. Which attribute is greater, the attribute of goodness, or the attribute of vengeance?'- He answered, 'The attribute of goodness is greater, and the attribute of vengeance is the less.' - 'How much more then, will the King Messiah, who endures affliction and pains for the transgressions (as it is written, 'He was wounded,'etc.), justify all generations. This is the meaning of the word, 'And the LORD made the iniquity of us all to meet upon Him' (Isa.53:6)."

Rabbi Eleazer Kalir (9.Century) wrote the following Musaf Prayer:
"Our righteous Messiah has departed from us. Horror has seized us and we have no one to justify us. He has borne our transgressions and the yoke of our iniquities, and is wounded because of our transgressions. He bore our sins upon His shoulders that we may find pardon for our iniquity. We shall be healed by His wounds, at the time when the Eternal will recreate Him a new creature. Oh bring Him up from the circle of the earth, raise Him up from Seir, that we may hear Him the second time."

Rabbi Moses, 'The Preacher'(11. Century) wrote in his commentary on Genesis (page 660):
"From the beginning God has made a covenant with the Messiah and told Him,'My righteous Messiah, those who are entrusted to you, their sins will bring you into a heavy yoke'..And He answered, 'I gladly accept all these agonies in order that not one of Israel should be lost.' Immediately, the Messiah accepted all agonies with love, as it is written: 'He was oppressed and he was afflicted'."







18)
سفر إشعياء 62: 8


حَلَفَ الرَّبُّ بِيَمِينِهِ وَبِذِرَاعِ عِزَّتِهِ قَائِلاً: «إِنِّي لاَ أَدْفَعُ بَعْدُ قَمْحَكِ مَأْكَلاً لأَعْدَائِكِ، وَلاَ يَشْرَبُ بَنُو الْغُرَبَاءِ خَمْرَكِ الَّتِي تَعِبْتِ فِيهَا.





من سفر أشعياء 63:16

فانك انت ابونا وان لم يعرفنا ابراهيم وان لم يدرنا اسرائيل انت يا رب ابونا ولينا منذ الابد اسمك

وهي النبوه التي شرحها المسيح حين قال قبل ان يكون ابراهيم انا كائن



اشعياء 61

1 رُوحُ السَّيِّدِ الرَّبِّ عَلَيَّ، لأَنَّ الرَّبَّ مَسَحَنِي لأُبَشِّرَ الْمَسَاكِينَ، أَرْسَلَنِي لأَعْصِبَ مُنْكَسِرِي الْقَلْبِ، لأُنَادِيَ لِلْمَسْبِيِّينَ بِالْعِتْقِ، وَلِلْمَأْسُورِينَ بِالإِطْلاَقِ. 2 لأُنَادِيَ بِسَنَةٍ مَقْبُولَةٍ لِلرَّبِّ، وَبِيَوْمِ انْتِقَامٍ لإِلَهِنَا. لأُعَزِّيَ كُلَّ النَّائِحِينَ. 3 لأَجْعَلَ لِنَائِحِي صِهْيَوْنَ، لأُعْطِيَهُمْ جَمَالاً عِوَضًا عَنِ الرَّمَادِ، وَدُهْنَ فَرَحٍ عِوَضًا عَنِ النَّوْحِ، وَرِدَاءَ تَسْبِيحٍ عِوَضًا عَنِ الرُّوحِ الْيَائِسَةِ، فَيُدْعَوْنَ أَشْجَارَ الْبِرِّ، غَرْسَ الرَّبِّ لِلتَّمْجِيدِ



8) سفر إرميا 23: 6


فِي أَيَّامِهِ يُخَلَّصُ يَهُوذَا، وَيَسْكُنُ إِسْرَائِيلُ آمِنًا، وَهذَا هُوَ اسْمُهُ الَّذِي يَدْعُونَهُ بِهِ: الرَّبُّ بِرُّنَا.

9) سفر إرميا 33: 16


فِي تِلْكَ الأَيَّامِ يَخْلُصُ يَهُوذَا، وَتَسْكُنُ أُورُشَلِيمُ آمِنَةً، وَهذَا مَا تَتَسَمَّى بِهِ: الرَّبُّ بِرُّنَا.

يهوه برنا يهوه لا يركب كاسم فهو نفسه يهوه برنا وليس صفه



سفر دانيال 7: 9


كُنْتُ أَرَى أَنَّهُ وُضِعَتْ عُرُوشٌ، وَجَلَسَ الْقَدِيمُ الأَيَّامِ. لِبَاسُهُ أَبْيَضُ كَالثَّلْجِ، وَشَعْرُ رَأْسِهِ كَالصُّوفِ النَّقِيِّ، وَعَرْشُهُ لَهِيبُ نَارٍ، وَبَكَرَاتُهُ نَارٌ مُتَّقِدَةٌ.



سفر دانيال 9: 25


فَاعْلَمْ وَافْهَمْ أَنَّهُ مِنْ خُرُوجِ الأَمْرِ لِتَجْدِيدِ أُورُشَلِيمَ وَبِنَائِهَا إِلَى الْمَسِيحِ الرَّئِيسِ سَبْعَةُ أَسَابِيعَ وَاثْنَانِ وَسِتُّونَ أُسْبُوعًا، يَعُودُ وَيُبْنَى سُوقٌ وَخَلِيجٌ فِي ضِيقِ الأَزْمِنَةِ.



سفر دانيال 9: 26


وَبَعْدَ اثْنَيْنِ وَسِتِّينَ أُسْبُوعًا يُقْطَعُ الْمَسِيحُ وَلَيْسَ لَهُ، وَشَعْبُ رَئِيسٍ آتٍ يُخْرِبُ الْمَدِينَةَ وَالْقُدْسَ، وَانْتِهَاؤُهُ بِغَمَارَةٍ، وَإِلَى النِّهَايَةِ حَرْبٌ وَخِرَبٌ قُضِيَ بِهَا.


ميخا 5

2 اما انت يا بيت لحم افراتة و انت صغيرة ان تكوني بين الوف يهوذا فمنك يخرج لي الذي يكون متسلطا على اسرائيل و مخارجه منذ القديم منذ ايام الازل*

زكريا 6

12 وَكَلِّمْهُ قَائِلاً: هكَذَا قَالَ رَبُّ الْجُنُودِ قَائِلاً: هُوَذَا الرَّجُلُ «الْغُصْنُ» اسْمُهُ. وَمِنْ مَكَانِهِ يَنْبُتُ وَيَبْنِي هَيْكَلَ الرَّبِّ. 13 فَهُوَ يَبْنِي هَيْكَلَ الرَّبِّ، وَهُوَ يَحْمِلُ الْجَلاَلَ وَيَجْلِسُ وَيَتَسَلَّطُ عَلَى كُرْسِيِّهِ، وَيَكُونُ كَاهِنًا عَلَى كُرْسِيِّهِ، وَتَكُونُ مَشُورَةُ السَّلاَمِ بَيْنَهُمَا كِلَيْهِمَا



- أسابيع دانيال التسعة والستون:

سَبْعُونَ أُسْبُوعاً قُضِيَتْ عَلَى شَعْبِكَ وَعَلَى مَدِينَتِكَ الْمُقَدَّسَةِ لِتَكْمِيلِ الْمَعْصِيَةِ وَتَتْمِيمِ الْخَطَايَا، وَلِكَفَّارَةِ الْإِثْمِ، وَلِيُؤْتَى بِالْبِرِّ الْأَبَدِيِّ، وَلِخَتْمِ الرُّؤْيَا وَالنُّبُّوَةِ، وَلِمَسْحِ قُدُّوسِ الْقُدُّوسِينَ.

فَاعْلَمْ وَافْهَمْ أَنَّهُ مِنْ خُرُوجِ الْأَمْرِ لِتَجْدِيدِ أُورُشَلِيمَ وَبَنَائِهَا إِلَى الْمَسِيحِ الرَّئِيسِ سَبْعَةُ أَسَابِيعَ وَاثْنَانِ وَسِتُّونَ أُسْبُوعاً، يَعُودُ وَيُبْنَى سُوقٌ وَخَلِيجٌ فِي ضِيقِ الْأَزْمِنَةِ.

وَبَعْدَ اثْنَيْنِ وَسِتِّينَ أُسْبُوعاً يُقْطَعُ الْمَسِيحُ وَلَيْسَ لَهُ، وَشَعْبُ رَئِيسٍ آتٍ يُخْرِبُ الْمَدِينَةَ وَالقُدْسَ، وَانْتِهَاؤُهُ بِغَمَارَةٍ، وَإِلَى النِّهَايَةِ حَرْبٌ وَخِرَبٌ قُضِيَ بِهَا.

وَيُثَبِّتُ عَهْداً مَعَ كَثِيرِينَ فِي أُسْبُوعٍ وَاحِدٍ، وَفِي وَسَطِ الْأُسْبُوعِ يُبَطِّلُ الذَّبِيحَةَ وَالتَّقْدِمَةَ، وَعَلَى جَنَاحِ الْأَرْجَاسِ مُخَرَّبٌ حَتَّى يَتِمَّ وَيُصَبَّ الْمَقْضِيُّ عَلَى الْمُخَرَِّبِ " دانيال 9: 24 - 27 " .



العهد الجديد

وبعد ان بينت المفهوم اليهودي ان المسيا هو الله الظاهر في الجسد

فمن يعترف من اليهود بان يسوع هو المسيح يعترف به بانه يهوه وانه اللوغوس وانه كلمة الله الخالق وانه مجد الله وبهاء جوهر الله وظهور الله في الجسد

ولذلك

اطلق علي يسوع اسم المسيح فوق 500 مره في العهد الجديد



امثلة

متي 16

وَلَمَّا جَاءَ يَسُوعُ إِلَى نَوَاحِي قَيْصَرِيَّةِ فِيلُبُّسَ سَأَلَ تَلاَمِيذَهُ قِائِلاًمَنْ يَقُولُ النَّاسُ إِنِّي أَنَا ابْنُ الإِنْسَانِ؟»
14
فَقَالُواقَوْمٌ: يُوحَنَّا الْمَعْمَدَانُ، وَآخَرُونَ: إِيلِيَّا، وَآخَرُونَ: إِرْمِيَا أَوْ وَاحِدٌ مِنَ الأَنْبِيَاءِ».
15
قَالَ لَهُمْوَأَنْتُمْ، مَنْ تَقُولُونَ إِنِّي أَنَا؟»
16
فَأَجَابَ سِمْعَانُ بُطْرُسُ وَقَالَأَنْتَ هُوَ الْمَسِيحُ ابْنُ اللهِ الْحَيِّ!».
17
فَأجَابَ يَسُوعُ وَقَالَ لَهُطُوبَى لَكَ يَا سِمْعَانُ بْنَ يُونَا، إِنَّ لَحْمًا وَدَمًا لَمْ يُعْلِنْ لَكَ، لكِنَّ أَبِي الَّذِي فِي السَّمَاوَاتِ.
18
وَأَنَا أَقُولُ لَكَ أَيْضًا: أَنْتَ بُطْرُسُ، وَعَلَى هذِهِ الصَّخْرَةِ أَبْني كَنِيسَتِي، وَأَبْوَابُ الْجَحِيمِ لَنْ تَقْوَى عَلَيْهَا.
19
وَأُعْطِيكَ مَفَاتِيحَ مَلَكُوتِ السَّمَاوَاتِ، فَكُلُّ مَا تَرْبِطُهُ عَلَى الأَرْضِ يَكُونُ مَرْبُوطًا فِي السَّمَاوَاتِ. وَكُلُّ مَا تَحُلُّهُ عَلَى الأَرْضِ يَكُونُ مَحْلُولاً فِي السَّمَاوَاتِ».
20 حِينَئِذٍ أَوْصَى تَلاَمِيذَهُ أَنْ لاَ يَقُولُوا لأَحَدٍ إِنَّهُ يَسُوعُ الْمَسِيحُ



متي 2

1 وَلَمَّا وُلِدَ يَسُوعُ فِي بَيْتِ لَحْمِ الْيَهُودِيَّةِ، فِي أَيَّامِ هِيرُودُسَ الْمَلِكِ، إِذَا مَجُوسٌ مِنَ الْمَشْرِقِ قَدْ جَاءُوا إِلَى أُورُشَلِيمَ
2
قَائِلِينَأَيْنَ هُوَ الْمَوْلُودُ مَلِكُ الْيَهُودِ؟ فَإِنَّنَا رَأَيْنَا نَجْمَهُ فِي الْمَشْرِقِ وَأَتَيْنَا لِنَسْجُدَ لَهُ».
3
فَلَمَّا سَمِعَ هِيرُودُسُ الْمَلِكُ اضْطَرَبَ وَجَمِيعُ أُورُشَلِيمَ مَعَهُ.
4
فَجَمَعَ كُلَّ رُؤَسَاءِ الْكَهَنَةِ وَكَتَبَةِ الشَّعْب، وَسَأَلَهُمْأَيْنَ يُولَدُ الْمَسِيحُ؟»
5
فَقَالُوا لَهُفِي بَيْتِ لَحْمِ الْيَهُودِيَّةِ. لأَنَّهُ هكَذَا مَكْتُوبٌ بِالنَّبِيِّ:



متي 26

63 وَأَمَّا يَسُوعُ فَكَانَ سَاكِتًا. فَأَجَابَ رَئِيسُ الْكَهَنَةِ وَقَالَ لَهُأَسْتَحْلِفُكَ بِاللهِ الْحَيِّ أَنْ تَقُولَ لَنَا: هَلْ أَنْتَ الْمَسِيحُ ابْنُ اللهِ؟»



يوحنا 4


24
اَللهُ رُوحٌ. وَالَّذِينَ يَسْجُدُونَ لَهُ فَبِالرُّوحِ وَالْحَقِّ يَنْبَغِي أَنْ يَسْجُدُوا».
25
قَالَتْ لَهُ الْمَرْأَةُأَنَا أَعْلَمُ أَنَّ مَسِيَّا، الَّذِي يُقَالُ لَهُ الْمَسِيحُ، يَأْتِي. فَمَتَى جَاءَ ذَاكَ يُخْبِرُنَا بِكُلِّ شَيْءٍ».
26
قَالَ لَهَا يَسُوعُأَنَا الَّذِي أُكَلِّمُكِ هُوَ».

وقالوا للمرأة اننا لسنا بعد بسبب كلامك نؤمن.لاننا نحن قد سمعنا ونعلم ان هذا هو بالحقيقة المسيح مخلّص العالم

27 وَعِنْدَ ذلِكَ جَاءَ تَلاَمِيذُهُ، وَكَانُوا يَتَعَجَّبُونَ أَنَّهُ يَتَكَلَّمُ مَعَ امْرَأَةٍ. وَلكِنْ لَمْ يَقُلْ أَحَدٌ: «مَاذَا تَطْلُبُ؟» أَوْ «لِمَاذَا تَتَكَلَّمُ مَعَهَا؟»
28
فَتَرَكَتِ الْمَرْأَةُ جَرَّتَهَا وَمَضَتْ إِلَى الْمَدِينَةِ وَقَالَتْ لِلنَّاسِ:
29
«هَلُمُّوا انْظُرُوا إِنْسَانًا قَالَ لِي كُلَّ مَا فَعَلْتُ. أَلَعَلَّ هذَا هُوَ الْمَسِيحُ؟».



إنجيل يوحنا 6: 69


وَنَحْنُ قَدْ آمَنَّا وَعَرَفْنَا أَنَّكَ أَنْتَ الْمَسِيحُ ابْنُ اللهِ الْحَيِّ».



يوحنا 9

22 قَالَ أَبَوَاهُ هذَا لأَنَّهُمَا كَانَا يَخَافَانِ مِنَ الْيَهُودِ، لأَنَّ الْيَهُودَ كَانُوا قَدْ تَعَاهَدُوا أَنَّهُ إِنِ اعْتَرَفَ أَحَدٌ بِأَنَّهُ الْمَسِيحُ يُخْرَجُ مِنَ الْمَجْمَعِ.



إنجيل يوحنا 10: 24


فَاحْتَاطَ بِهِ الْيَهُودُ وَقَالُوا لَهُ: «إِلَى مَتَى تُعَلِّقُ أَنْفُسَنَا؟ إِنْ كُنْتَ أَنْتَ الْمَسِيحَ فَقُلْ لَنَا جَهْرًا».

ولهذا ارادوا ان يرجموه لما اعلن لهم



يوحنا 11

مرثا
27
قَالَتْ لَهُنَعَمْ يَا سَيِّدُ. أَنَا قَدْ آمَنْتُ أَنَّكَ أَنْتَ الْمَسِيحُ ابْنُ اللهِ، الآتِي إِلَى الْعَالَمِ».



يوحنا 12

34 فَأَجَابَهُ الْجَمْعُ: «نَحْنُ سَمِعْنَا مِنَ النَّامُوسِ أَنَّ الْمَسِيحَ يَبْقَى إِلَى الأَبَدِ، فَكَيْفَ تَقُولُ أَنْتَ إِنَّهُ يَنْبَغِي أَنْ يَرْتَفِعَ ابْنُ الإِنْسَانِ؟ مَنْ هُوَ هذَا ابْنُ الإِنْسَانِ؟»



يوحنا 20

31 وَأَمَّا هذِهِ فَقَدْ كُتِبَتْ لِتُؤْمِنُوا أَنَّ يَسُوعَ هُوَ الْمَسِيحُ ابْنُ اللهِ، وَلِكَيْ تَكُونَ لَكُمْ إِذَا آمَنْتُمْ حَيَاةٌ بِاسْمِهِ.



واعترف به بطرس

إنجيل متى 16: 16


فَأَجَابَ سِمْعَانُ بُطْرُسُ وَقَالَ: «أَنْتَ هُوَ الْمَسِيحُ ابْنُ اللهِ الْحَيِّ!».



إنجيل مرقس 8: 29


فَقَالَ لَهُمْ: «وَأَنْتُمْ، مَنْ تَقُولُونَ إِنِّي أَنَا؟» فَأَجَابَ بُطْرُسُ وَقَالَ لَهُ: «أَنْتَ الْمَسِيحُ



حتي الشياطين اعترفت بذلك وصرخت فزعا قائله

إنجيل لوقا 4: 41


وَكَانَتْ شَيَاطِينُ أَيْضًا تَخْرُجُ مِنْ كَثِيرِينَ وَهِيَ تَصْرُخُ وَتَقُولُ: «أَنْتَ الْمَسِيحُ ابْنُ اللهِفَانْتَهَرَهُمْ وَلَمْ يَدَعْهُمْ يَتَكَلَّمُونَ، لأَنَّهُمْ عَرَفُوهُ أَنَّهُ الْمَسِيحُ.







1 كورونثس 2

2 لأَنِّي لَمْ أَعْزِمْ أَنْ أَعْرِفَ شَيْئًا بَيْنَكُمْ إلاَّ يَسُوعَ الْمَسِيحَ وَإِيَّاهُ مَصْلُوبًا.

8 الَّتِي لَمْ يَعْلَمْهَا أَحَدٌ مِنْ عُظَمَاءِ هذَا الدَّهْرِ، لأَنْ لَوْ عَرَفُوا لَمَا صَلَبُوا رَبَّ الْمَجْدِ.



الفرق بين مسيح الرب والمسيح الذي هو الرب يسوع المسيح

أولاً كلمة مسيح

معناها الممسوح من الله وكانت تُطلق على ملوك بنى إسرائيل الممسوحين من الله بواسطة الكهنة فى العهد القديم.

وجاءت كلمة "مسيح" 11 مرة فى العهد القديم , 8 مرات تخص الملك شاول ومرتين تخص الملك داود ومرة واحدة تخص الملك صدقيا , ولكنها جميعاً جاءت نكرة غير معرفة وجاءت تخص ملوك بنى إسرائيل ولم تأتى كلمة المسيح مُعرفة ولا مرة واحدة عن أي نبي أو كاهن أو ملك فى العهد القديم

وعاده تاتي مضافة الي الرب اي مسيح الرب



مره واحده جاءت فيها كلمة المسيح مُعرفة فى العهد القديم جاءت فى سفر دانيال 9



فالفرق بينهم كبير جدا فمسيح الرب اي الرجل البشري الذي مسح بدهن مسحة الرب واصبح من رجال الله

وهذا ما اطلق علي شاول وداوود وكثيرين من الممسوحين



سفر صموئيل الأول 24: 6


فَقَالَ لِرِجَالِهِ: «حَاشَا لِي مِنْ قِبَلِ الرَّبِّ أَنْ أَعْمَلَ هذَا الأَمْرَ بِسَيِّدِي، بِمَسِيحِ الرَّبِّ، فَأَمُدَّ يَدِي إِلَيْهِ، لأَنَّهُ مَسِيحُ الرَّبِّ هُوَ».


6)
سفر صموئيل الأول 24: 10


هُوَذَا قَدْ رَأَتْ عَيْنَاكَ الْيَوْمَ هذَا كَيْفَ دَفَعَكَ الرَّبُّ اليَومَ لِيَدِي فِي الْكَهْفِ، وَقِيلَ لِي أَنْ أَقْتُلَكَ، وَلكِنَّنِي أَشْفَقْتُ عَلَيْكَ وَقُلْتُ: لاَ أَمُدُّ يَدِي إِلَى سَيِّدِي، لأَنَّهُ مَسِيحُ الرَّبِّ هُوَ.


7)
سفر صموئيل الأول 26: 9


فَقَالَ دَاوُدُ لأَبِيشَايَ: «لاَ تُهْلِكْهُ، فَمَنِ الَّذِي يَمُدُّ يَدَهُ إِلَى مَسِيحِ الرَّبِّ وَيَتَبَرَّأُ؟»


8)
سفر صموئيل الأول 26: 11


حَاشَا لِي مِنْ قِبَلِ الرَّبِّ أَنْ أَمُدَّ يَدِي إِلَى مَسِيحِ الرَّبِّ! وَالآنَ فَخُذِ الرُّمْحَ الَّذِي عِنْدَ رَأْسِهِ وَكُوزَ الْمَاءِ وَهَلُمَّ».


9)
سفر صموئيل الأول 26: 16


لَيْسَ حَسَنًا هذَا الأَمْرُ الَّذِي عَمِلْتَ. حَيٌّ هُوَ الرَّبُّ، إِنَّكُمْ أَبْنَاءُ الْمَوْتِ أَنْتُمْ، لأَنَّكُمْ لَمْ تُحَافِظُوا عَلَى سَيِّدِكُمْ، عَلَى مَسِيحِ الرَّبِّ. فَانْظُرِ الآنَ أَيْنَ هُوَ رُمْحُ الْمَلِكِ وَكُوزُ الْمَاءِ الَّذِي كَانَ عِنْدَ رَأْسِهِ».


10)
سفر صموئيل الأول 26: 23


وَالرَّبُّ يَرُدُّ عَلَى كُلِّ وَاحِدٍ بِرَّهُ وَأَمَانَتَهُ، لأَنَّهُ قَدْ دَفَعَكَ الرَّبُّ الْيَوْمَ لِيَدِي وَلَمْ أَشَأْ أَنْ أَمُدَّ يَدِي إِلَى مَسِيحِ الرَّبِّ.



اما السيد المسيح فلم ياخذ هذا اللقب

ولكنه اخذ لقب المسيح المعرف بالالف واللام وليس بالاضافه للرب

وهو بالارامي مشيحا دهن المسحه نفسه

فالمسيح هو المسحه نفسه الذي يقدس البشر ولهذا لقبه المسيح او الرب يسوع المسيح اي يهوه نفسه



في سفر دانيال

سفر دانيال 9: 25


فَاعْلَمْ وَافْهَمْ أَنَّهُ مِنْ خُرُوجِ الأَمْرِ لِتَجْدِيدِ أُورُشَلِيمَ وَبِنَائِهَا إِلَى الْمَسِيحِ الرَّئِيسِ سَبْعَةُ أَسَابِيعَ وَاثْنَانِ وَسِتُّونَ أُسْبُوعًا، يَعُودُ وَيُبْنَى سُوقٌ وَخَلِيجٌ فِي ضِيقِ الأَزْمِنَةِ.



سفر دانيال 9: 26


وَبَعْدَ اثْنَيْنِ وَسِتِّينَ أُسْبُوعًا يُقْطَعُ الْمَسِيحُ وَلَيْسَ لَهُ، وَشَعْبُ رَئِيسٍ آتٍ يُخْرِبُ الْمَدِينَةَ وَالْقُدْسَ، وَانْتِهَاؤُهُ بِغَمَارَةٍ، وَإِلَى النِّهَايَةِ حَرْبٌ وَخِرَبٌ قُضِيَ بِهَا.



فهو ليس معرف بالاضافه للرب ولكنه هو المسيح نفسه



ونقراء معا بعض الاعداد من 500 عدد

إنجيل متى 1: 1


كِتَابُ مِيلاَدِ يَسُوعَ الْمَسِيحِ ابْنِ دَاوُدَ ابْنِ إِبْراهِيمَ:


4)
إنجيل متى 1: 16


وَيَعْقُوبُ وَلَدَ يُوسُفَ رَجُلَ مَرْيَمَ الَّتِي وُلِدَ مِنْهَا يَسُوعُ الَّذِي يُدْعَى الْمَسِيحَ.


5)
إنجيل متى 1: 17


فَجَمِيعُ الأَجْيَالِ مِنْ إِبْراهِيمَ إِلَى دَاوُدَ أَرْبَعَةَ عَشَرَ جِيلاً، وَمِنْ دَاوُدَ إِلَى سَبْيِ بَابِلَ أَرْبَعَةَ عَشَرَ جِيلاً، وَمِنْ سَبْيِ بَابِلَ إِلَى الْمَسِيحِ أَرْبَعَةَ عَشَرَ جِيلاً.


6)
إنجيل متى 1: 18


أَمَّا وِلاَدَةُ يَسُوعَ الْمَسِيحِ فَكَانَتْ هكَذَا: لَمَّا كَانَتْ مَرْيَمُ أُمُّهُ مَخْطُوبَةً لِيُوسُفَ، قَبْلَ أَنْ يَجْتَمِعَا، وُجِدَتْ حُبْلَى مِنَ الرُّوحِ الْقُدُسِ.


7)
إنجيل متى 2: 4


فَجَمَعَ كُلَّ رُؤَسَاءِ الْكَهَنَةِ وَكَتَبَةِ الشَّعْب، وَسَأَلَهُمْ: «أَيْنَ يُولَدُ الْمَسِيحُ؟»


8)
إنجيل متى 11: 2


أَمَّا يُوحَنَّا فَلَمَّا سَمِعَ فِي السِّجْنِ بِأَعْمَالِ الْمَسِيحِ، أَرْسَلَ اثْنَيْنِ مِنْ تَلاَمِيذِهِ،


9)
إنجيل متى 16: 16


فَأَجَابَ سِمْعَانُ بُطْرُسُ وَقَالَ: «أَنْتَ هُوَ الْمَسِيحُ ابْنُ اللهِ الْحَيِّ!».



واطلق عليه المسيح الرب

إنجيل لوقا 2: 11


أَنَّهُ وُلِدَ لَكُمُ الْيَوْمَ فِي مَدِينَةِ دَاوُدَ مُخَلِّصٌ هُوَ الْمَسِيحُ الرَّبُّ.



والرب يسوع المسيح

وبعض الاعداد



سفر أعمال الرسل 11: 17


فَإِنْ كَانَ اللهُ قَدْ أَعْطَاهُمُ الْمَوْهِبَةَ كَمَا لَنَا أَيْضًا بِالسَّوِيَّةِ مُؤْمِنِينَ بِالرَّبِّ يَسُوعَ الْمَسِيحِ، فَمَنْ أَنَا؟ أَقَادِرٌ أَنْ أَمْنَعَ اللهَ؟».


5)
سفر أعمال الرسل 15: 11


لكِنْ بِنِعْمَةِ الرَّبِّ يَسُوعَ الْمَسِيحِ نُؤْمِنُ أَنْ نَخْلُصَ كَمَا أُولئِكَ أَيْضًا».


6)
سفر أعمال الرسل 16: 31


فَقَالاَ: «آمِنْ بِالرَّبِّ يَسُوعَ الْمَسِيحِ فَتَخْلُصَ أَنْتَ وَأَهْلُ بَيْتِكَ».


7)
سفر أعمال الرسل 28: 31


كَارِزًا بِمَلَكُوتِ اللهِ، وَمُعَلِّمًا بِأَمْرِ الرَّبِّ يَسُوعَ الْمَسِيحِ بِكُلِّ مُجَاهَرَةٍ، بِلاَ مَانِعٍ.


8)
رسالة بولس الرسول إلى أهل رومية 1: 7


إِلَى جَمِيعِ الْمَوْجُودِينَ فِي رُومِيَةَ، أَحِبَّاءَ اللهِ، مَدْعُوِّينَ قِدِّيسِينَ: نِعْمَةٌ لَكُمْ وَسَلاَمٌ مِنَ اللهِ أَبِينَا وَالرَّبِّ يَسُوعَ الْمَسِيحِ.


9)
رسالة بولس الرسول إلى أهل رومية 13: 14


بَلِ الْبَسُوا الرَّبَّ يَسُوعَ الْمَسِيحَ، وَلاَ تَصْنَعُوا تَدْبِيرًا لِلْجَسَدِ لأَجْلِ الشَّهَوَاتِ.


10)
رسالة بولس الرسول الأولى إلى أهل كورنثوس 1: 3


نِعْمَةٌ لَكُمْ وَسَلاَمٌ مِنَ اللهِ أَبِينَا وَالرَّبِّ يَسُوعَ الْمَسِيحِ.



وذكر مره واحده عن المسيح انه مسيح الرب عن فكر سمعان الشيخ

إنجيل لوقا 2: 26


وَكَانَ قَدْ أُوحِيَ إِلَيْهِ بِالرُّوحِ الْقُدُسِ أَنَّهُ لاَ يَرَى الْمَوْتَ قَبْلَ أَنْ يَرَى مَسِيحَ الرَّبِّ.



ولذلك عندما اراد المسيح اخفاء لاهوته قال

إنجيل متى 16: 20


حِينَئِذٍ أَوْصَى تَلاَمِيذَهُ أَنْ لاَ يَقُولُوا لأَحَدٍ إِنَّهُ يَسُوعُ الْمَسِيحُ.



وهذا ما شرحه معلمنا يوحنا حينما تكلم عن اللوغوس اي المسيح اي حكمة الله والكلمه الخالق

إنجيل يوحنا 1: 1


فِي الْبَدْءِ كَانَ الْكَلِمَةُ، وَالْكَلِمَةُ كَانَ عِنْدَ اللهِ، وَكَانَ الْكَلِمَةُ اللهَ.



وهذا ايضا ما شرحه معلمنا بولس الرسول عن الميمرا والشكينا

رسالة بولس الرسول إلى العبرانيين 1: 3


الَّذِي، وَهُوَ بَهَاءُ مَجْدِهِ، وَرَسْمُ جَوْهَرِهِ، وَحَامِلٌ كُلَّ الأَشْيَاءِ بِكَلِمَةِ قُدْرَتِهِ، بَعْدَ مَا صَنَعَ بِنَفْسِهِ تَطْهِيرًا لِخَطَايَانَا، جَلَسَ فِي يَمِينِ الْعَظَمَةِ فِي الأَعَالِي،



رسالة بولس الرسول إلى أهل فيلبي 2: 7


لكِنَّهُ أَخْلَى نَفْسَهُ، آخِذًا صُورَةَ عَبْدٍ، صَائِرًا فِي شِبْهِ النَّاسِ.



رسالة بولس الرسول الأولى إلى تيموثاوس 2: 5


لأَنَّهُ يُوجَدُ إِلهٌ وَاحِدٌ وَوَسِيطٌ وَاحِدٌ بَيْنَ اللهِ وَالنَّاسِ: الإِنْسَانُ يَسُوعُ الْمَسِيحُ،



واكد ان الوسيط حسب المفهوم اليهودي هو الله نفسه

رسالة بولس الرسول إلى أهل غلاطية 3: 20


وَأَمَّا الْوَسِيطُ فَلاَ يَكُونُ لِوَاحِدٍ. وَلكِنَّ اللهَ وَاحِدٌ.



( وهذا ايضا ردا علي من يدعي بدون فهم ان مسيحية معلمنا بولس مختلفة )





وهذا رد ايضا علي من يتسائل ويقول بدون فهم اين قال المسيح انا هو الله

ونري انه سؤال يعبر عن عدم فهم شديد لانه يقول اين قال المسيح ولا يدرك ان المسيح هو لقب الله



والان بعد ان ادركنا معا ان اسم المسيح هو اعلان الوهيتة بطريقه واضحه

اعود الي نقطه البداية في متي 26


63 وَأَمَّا يَسُوعُ فَكَانَ سَاكِتًا. فَأَجَابَ رَئِيسُ الْكَهَنَةِ وَقَالَ لَهُ: «أَسْتَحْلِفُكَ بِاللهِ الْحَيِّ أَنْ تَقُولَ لَنَا: هَلْ أَنْتَ الْمَسِيحُ ابْنُ اللهِ؟»
64 قَالَ لَهُ يَسُوعُ: «أَنْتَ قُلْتَ! وَأَيْضًا أَقُولُ لَكُمْ: مِنَ الآنَ تُبْصِرُونَ ابْنَ الإِنْسَانِ جَالِسًا عَنْ يَمِينِ الْقُوَّةِ، وَآتِيًا عَلَى سَحَاب السَّمَاءِ».
65 فَمَزَّقَ رَئِيسُ الْكَهَنَةِ حِينَئِذٍ ثِيَابَهُ قَائِلاً: «قَدْ جَدَّفَ! مَا حَاجَتُنَا بَعْدُ إِلَى شُهُودٍ؟ هَا قَدْ سَمِعْتُمْ تَجْدِيفَهُ!
66 مَاذَا تَرَوْنَ؟» فَأَجَابُوا وَقَالوُا : «إِنَّهُ مُسْتَوْجِبُ الْمَوْتِ».



مرقس 14


61 أَمَّا هُوَ فَكَانَ سَاكِتًا وَلَمْ يُجِبْ بِشَيْءٍ. فَسَأَلَهُ رَئِيسُ الْكَهَنَةِ أَيْضًا وَقَالَ لَهُ: «أَأَنْتَ الْمَسِيحُ ابْنُ الْمُبَارَكِ؟»
62 فَقَالَ يَسُوعُ: «أَنَا هُوَ. وَسَوْفَ تُبْصِرُونَ ابْنَ الإِنْسَانِ جَالِسًا عَنْ يَمِينِ الْقُوَّةِ، وَآتِيًا فِي سَحَابِ السَّمَاءِ».
63 فَمَزَّقَ رَئِيسُ الْكَهَنَةِ ثِيَابَهُ وَقَالَ: «مَا حَاجَتُنَا بَعْدُ إِلَى شُهُودٍ؟
64 قَدْ سَمِعْتُمُ التَّجَادِيفَ! مَا رَأْيُكُمْ؟» فَالْجَمِيعُ حَكَمُوا عَلَيْهِ أَنَّهُ مُسْتَوْجِبُ الْمَوْتِ.



لوقا 22


67 قَائِلِينَ: «إِنْ كُنْتَ أَنْتَ الْمسِيحَ، فَقُلْ لَنَا!». فَقَالَ لَهُمْ: «إِنْ قُلْتُ لَكُمْ لاَ تُصَدِّقُونَ،
68 وَإِنْ سَأَلْتُ لاَ تُجِيبُونَنِي وَلاَ تُطْلِقُونَنِي.
69 مُنْذُ الآنَ يَكُونُ ابْنُ الإِنْسَانِ جَالِسًا عَنْ يَمِينِ قُوَّةِ اللهِ».
70 فَقَالَ الْجَمِيعُ: «أَفَأَنْتَ ابْنُ اللهِ؟» فَقَالَ لَهُمْ: «أَنْتُمْ تَقُولُونَ إِنِّي أَنَا هُوَ».
71 فَقَالُوا: «مَا حَاجَتُنَا بَعْدُ إِلَى شَهَادَةٍ؟ لأَنَّنَا نَحْنُ سَمِعْنَا مِنْ فَمِهِ».

ففي مفهوم اليهود ان المسيح اعلن انه هو المسيح الحقيقي هو اعلان الوهية واضح ( انه هو الله الظاهر في الجسد وهو الكلمه الخالق وحكمة وبهاء مجد ورسم الجوهر واللوغوس والشكينا والميمرا ) ولهذا اعتبروه انه جدف لانه قال عن نفسه انه المسيح







فاسم المسيح هو اثبات الوهية يسوع بشكل قاطع ورجال العهد الجديد فهموا ذلك جيدا ومن يعلن ان يسوع هو المسيح فهو امن بلاهوته وتجسده



ومن له اذنان للسمع فليسمع



والمجد لله دائما



المصادر اليهودية كامله بالنص الانجليزي واللنكات



MESSIAH   





The Name. The name or title of the ideal king of the Messianic age; used also without the article as a proper name—"Mashiaḥ" (in the Babylonian Talmud and in the midrash literature), like Χριστός in the Gospels. The Grecized Μεσσιας of the New Testament (John i. 41, iv. 25) is a transliteration of the Aramaic form, Aramaic being the spoken language of Palestine in the time of Jesus. "The Messiah"

The Ideal in Isaiah.

But though the name is of later origin, the idea of a personal Messiah runs through the Old Testament. It is the natural outcome of the prophetic future hope. The first prophet to give a detailed picture of the future ideal king was Isaiah (ix. 1-6, xi. 1-10, xxxii. 1-5). Of late the authenticity of these passages, and also of those passages in Jeremiah and Ezekiel which give expression to the hope in a Messiah, has been disputed by various Biblical scholars (comp. Hackmann, "Die Zukunftserwartung des Jesaiah"; Volz, "Die Vorexilische Jahweprophetie und der Messias"; Marti, "Gesch. der Israelitischen Religion," pp. 190 et seq.; idem, "Das Buch Jesaia"; Cheyne, "Introduction to Isaiah," and edition and transl. of Isaiah in "S. B. O. T.").

The ideal king to whom Isaiah looks forward will be a scion of the stock of Jesse, on whom will rest the spirit of God as a spirit of wisdom, valor, and religion, and who will rule in the fear of God, his loins girt with righteousness and faithfulness (xi. 1-3a, 5). He will not engage in war or in the conquest of nations; the paraphernalia of war will be destroyed (ix. 4); his sole concern will be to establish justice among his people (ix. 6b; xi. 3b, 4). The fruit of his righteous government will be peace and order throughout the land. The lamb will not dread the wolf, nor will the leopard harm the kid (xi. 8); that is, as the following verse explains, tyranny and violence will no longer be practised on God's holy mountain, for the land will be full of the knowledge of God as the water covers the sea (comp. xxxii. 1, 2, 16). The people will not aspire to political greatness, but will lead a pastoral life (xxxii. 18, 20). Under such ideal conditions the country can not but prosper, nor need it fear attack from outside nations (ix. 6a, xxxii. 15). The newly risen scion of Jesse will stand forth as a beacon to other nations, and they will come to him for guidance and arbitration (xi. 10). He will rightly be called "Wonderful Counselor," "Godlike Hero," "Constant Father," "Prince of Peace" (ix. 5).

The "Immanuel" Passage.

This picture of the future fully accords with Isaiah's view, that the judgment will lead to a spiritual regeneration and bring about a state of moral and religious perfection; and it agrees also with the doctrine, which, in his bitter opposition to the alliances with Assyria and Egypt, he preached to his people—the doctrine, namely, that their sole concern should be God and their sole reliance be on Him, for thus, and thus only, might they endure (vii. 9; comp. also v. 4, viii. 13, xxx. 15). The prophets advocated a government which would be in conformity with God's will and be regulated by His laws of righteousness. In connection with Isaiah's Messianic hope it remains to be observed that the "Immanuel" passage, Isa. vii. 14, which is interpreted in Matt. i. 23 as referring to the birth of Jesus, has, as Robertson Smith ("The Prophets of Israel," pp. 271 et seq., 426 et seq.) and others have pointed out, no Messianic import whatever. The name has reference merely to events of the immediate present. He means to give a token by which the truth of his prophetic word may be tested, saying that any young woman giving birth to a son in the near future will call him "Immanuel" (= "God with us"), in remembrance of the withdrawal of the Syrian-Ephraimitic armies from the country (v. 16).

In Jeremiah and Ezekiel.

The idea of a personal Messiah is not met with again until the time of Jeremiah and Ezekiel (the Messianic picture of Micah v. 1, 3-8, as is proved by the fact that in it Israel and the Messiah hold dominion over the nations, according to this view can not be a pre-exilic product of prophecy; in fact, it must have originated late in post-exilic times). Jeremiah's picture of the Messiah is not a detailed one; but, like his future hope in general, it agrees in all essentials with that of Isaiah. The Messiah will be "a righteous sprout of David," who will establish just judgment and wise government in the country, and whose name will be (= "God is our salvation"; xxiii. 5, 6; these two verses recur in almost the same form in xxxiii. 15, 16, but in the latter verse the name is applied to Jerusalem, an application which did not originate with Jeremiah. Ch. xxx. 9 et seq., 21 does not claim consideration here, as it is of later origin).

In Ezekiel, the Messiah is a purely passive figure, the only personal reference to him being in xvii. 23—"he will become a mighty cedar" (Hebr.). The regeneration of the people, like their restoration, is exclusively the work of God.

Ideal of the Second Isaiah.

The personal Messiah does not figure at all in the future hope of Deutero-Isaiah, whose lofty universalism marks the final step in the development of the religious ideas of the Prophets. The salvation of mankind is the goal of history, and Israel's prerogative becomes but the privilege of suffering for the good of the whole world. God has called Israel for the realization of His purpose toward man. Israel, and not an individual, is "the servant of God" (Isa. xlii. 1-6, xlix. 1-6, l. 4-9, lii. 13-liii. 12), through whom the regeneration of mankind will be accomplished, who will spread the true religion among all nations, convert all men into willing servants of God, and lead all tongues to confess Him (xlv. 23). Naturally, not the actual Israel of the present is meant, but the ideal Israel of the future, risen to spiritual heights in consequence of his wonderful deliverance by God. For this high destiny Israel has been especially fitted by reason of the religious experience which God has stored up in him in the course of his history; and, by submitting, in accordance with God's will, to suffering and ignominy, he fulfils his mission and advances toward his final goal. In Isa. ii. 1-4 and Micah iv. 1-4 there is the same picture of the Messianic future as in Deutero-Isaiah—Jerusalem as the religious center of the world, whence salvation will radiate to all men—but contain the additional promise that universal peace will ensue in consequence thereof. In like manner the post-exilic prophets Trito-Isaiah, Malachi, and Joel, and the post-exilic Apocalypse of Isaiah, xxiv.-xxvii., have no personal Messiah. According to them, God Himself, without the instrumentality of a man, will redeem Israel from his present misery and bring about the new era of salvation. The conclusion, however, of Malachi (the authorship of which is doubtful) speaks of a messenger, Elijah, whom God will send to convert men and thus pave the way for His own coming.

Rise of Popular Belief in a Personal Messiah.

Not until after the fall of the Maccabean dynasty, when the despotic government of Herod the Great and his family, and the increasing tyranny of the Roman empire had made their condition ever more unbearable, did the Jews seek refuge in the hope of a personal Messiah. They yearned for the promised deliverer of the house of David, who would free them from the yoke of the hated foreign usurper, would put an end to the impious Roman rule, and would establish His own reign of peace and justice in its place. In this way their hopes became gradually centered in the Messiah. As evidence that in the Roman period the Messianic hope had become universal among the Jews may be adduced: (1) Jesus' conviction that he was the Messiah, a conviction inspired in him by the current belief in a Messiah, as is shown by the fact that on his entry into Jerusalem the populace hailed him as such; (2) the testimony of Josephus ("B. J." vi. 5, § 4), Tacitus ("Hist." v. 13), and Suetonius (Vespasian, iv.) regarding the Messianic belief of the Jewish people at that time; (3) the fact that even in Philo's picture of the future, in spite of its moralistic tendency, the Messianic king has a place (comp. "De Præmiis et Pœnis," § 16). It may be noted in this connection that the "Prayer for the Coming of the Messiah," as the version of it given both in the Babylonian and in the Palestinian recensions of the Shemoneh 'Esreh shows (see Nos. 14 and 15 respectively), can not have become an integral part of the daily prayers later than the time immediately following the destruction of the Temple, for in that period the "Shemoneh 'Esreh" received its present form. Hillel's assertion (Sanh. 98b) that there would be no future Messiah for Israel since the latter had had its Messiah in the days of Hezekiah, can have no weight as a contrary argument, as Hillel lived in the reign of Herod the Great, at the beginning of the period which marks the development of the popular belief in the Messiah.

In the Older Apocalyptic Literature.

In the older apocalyptic literature the first book to be mentioned in which the Messiah figures as an earthly king is "The Vision of the Seventy Shepherds of the Book of Enoch" (ch. lxxxv.-xc.) of the time of John Hyrcanus (135-105 B.C.). The Messiah appears under the figure of a white bull at the conclusion of the world-drama (xc. 37 et seq.) and commands the respect and fear of all the heathen, who eventually become converted to God. Yet he does not take any actual rôle. It is God Himself who wards off the last attack of the heathen against Israel, gives judgment, and establishes the world-dominion of Israel. Second in this group come those parts of the Sibylline Books whose date, as Geffken's recent critical analysis has established ("Komposition und Entstehungszeit der Oracula Sibyllina," pp. 7-13), is about the year 83 B.C. The Messiah is pictured (verses 652-666) as a king sent by God from the rising of the sun, who will put an end to war all over the earth, inasmuch as he will destroy some peoples and make permanent treaties with the others; in all his actions he will be solicitous not to follow his own counsel, but to obey the commands of God. The writer then describes at length the attack by the heathen nations on the magnificent Temple of God and on the Holy Land, and the annihilation of the nations by God; the Last Judgment, with the ensuing conversion of the heathen to God; the establishment of God's eternal kingdom over all men and the reign of universal peace; but, strange to say, throughout the description there is no mention of the Messiah. In fact, in verses 781 et seq. the Israelites are spoken of as the prophets of God, the judges of mankind, and the just kings who will put an end to the sway of the sword upon earth.



In the Psalms of Solomon.

"The Vision of the Seventy Shepherds" and Sibyllines, iii. 652 et seq. say nothing whatever about the lineage of the earthly Messiah, but in the Psalms of Solomon (xvii.), which were called forth by the conquest of Jerusalem by Pompey (63 B.C.), he is designated as the "son of David," who will appear at a time known only to God. These Psalms (l.c.) contain a more detailed description of his personality and of his reign than any other writing of that period. The Messiah will first crush the unjust rulers and rid Jerusalem of, and destroy, the impious heathen. Then he will gather the scattered ones of Israel, distribute them through the land according to their tribes, and found his own kingdom of peace and justice. No wicked person will be tolerated in his kindgom nor will foreigners be allowed to dwell there. He will subject the heathen nations to his rule, glorify the Lord before the whole world, and make Jerusalem pure and holy as of old, so that the nations will come from the ends of the earth to witness God's glory. The description which follows of his righteous reign shows the influence of Isa. xi. 1 et seq. Free from sin, strong in the divine fear, and filled with the spirit of God, of valor, and of justice, he will tend the flock of the Lord faithfully, hold the higher officers in check, and make sinners cease by the power of his word, so that injustice and tyranny will not be practised in the land. He will not rely upon horses and warriors, nor heap up gold and silver to wage war, nor keep armies. In God alone will he place his trust, and his strength will be in Him.

In the Apocalypse of Baruch (70-100 C.E.) the earthly Messiah will appear at the close of the fourth (i.e., the Roman) world-empire and destroy it. The last ruler of the empire will, after his hosts have been destroyed, be brought in chains before the Messiah on Mount Zion, and there, after the impiousness of his rule has been pointed out to him, he will be put to death by the Messiah's own hand. Of the other nations, those hostile to Israel will be put to the sword and the remainder subjected to the rule of the Messiah, who will establish himself on the throne of his kingdom, inaugurate the reign of morality and bliss, and hold dominion until the end of time, that is, until the consummation of the present world (xxix. 3, xxxix. 5-xl. 3, lxxii.-lxxiii. 4. Ch. xxx. 1 is to be taken, with Volz ["Jüdische Eschatologie," pp. 37, 203], as Christian interpolation).

In the Testaments of the Patriarchs.

The Testament of Levi (ch. viii. and xviii.) shows a unique conception of the Messiah. He is not, as in the Testament of Judah (see below) and according to the popular belief, a descendant of David, but a priestly king of the tribe of Levi. His character and activity are altogether spiritual. The pouring out of the spirit and knowledge of the Lord over all mankind and the cessation of sin and evil will be the fruit of his ideal priesthood, which will last for all eternity. He himself will open the doors of paradise, cast aside the sword threatening Adam, and give the saints to eat of the tree of life. He will chain up Belial and will give his children power to trample on the evil spirits. The picture of the Messiah in the Testament of Judah (ch. xxiv.), although far more brief, resembles, in its spiritual character and in its universalistic tendency, that in the Testament of Levi. The sole mission of the Messiah will be the regeneration of mankind, and his kingdom will be one of justice and salvation for the whole world. If, as Bousset sought to prove ("Zeitschrift für die Neutestamentliche Wissenschaft," i. 193 et seq.), the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs date mainly from the time of the Maccabees, then the Messiahconception of the Testament of Levi is easily accounted for; the author expects that the future Savior will be a prince of the reigning priestly house of the Maccabees.

The Heavenly Messiah.

The oldest apocalypse in which the conception of a preexistent heavenly Messiah is met with is the Messiological section of the Book of Enoch (xxxvii.-lxxi.) of the first century B.C. The Messiah is called "the Son of Man," and is described as an angelic being, his countenance resembling a man's, and as occupying a seat in heaven beside the Ancient of Days (xlvi. 1), or, as it is expressed in ch. xxxix. 7, "under the wings of the Lord of spirits." In ch. xlviii. 3, 6, xlix. 2b it is stated that "His name was called before the Lord of spirits before the sun and the signs of the zodiac were created, and before the stars of heaven weremade"; that "He was chosen and hidden with God before the world was created, and will remain in His presence forevermore" (comp. also lxii. 6); and that "His glory will last from eternity unto eternity and his might from generation unto generation" (that "his name" in xlviii. 3 means really "son of man" is evident from verse 6; comp. the similar use of "Shem Yhwh" for "Yhwh" in Isa. xxx. 27). He is represented as the embodiment of justice and wisdom and as the medium of all God's revelations to men (xlvi. 3; xlix. 1, 2a, 3). At the end of time the Lord will reveal him to the world and will place him on the throne of His glory in order that he may judge all creatures in accordance with the end to which God had chosen him from the beginning. When he rises for the judgment all the world will fall down before him, and adore and extol him, and give praise to the Lord of spirits. The angels in heaven also, and the elect in the Garden of Life, will join in his praise and will glorify the Lord. "He will judge all hidden things, and no one will be able to make vain excuses to him"; he will judge also Azazel, with all his associates and all his hosts. The wicked ones of the earth, especially all kings and potentates, he will give over to damnation, but for the just and chosen ones he will prepare eternal bliss, and he will dwell in their midst for all eternity (xlv. 3, 4; xlvi. 4-6; xlviii. 4-10; xlix. 4; li. 3; lv. 4; lxi. 7-lxii. 14).

It is worthy of special note that in the appendix to the Messiological section of Enoch, the latter himself is the Son of Man = Messiah (lxxi. 14), and, as in the Slavonic Book of Enoch and the Hebrew Book of Enoch (see Jew. Encyc. i. 676, s.v. Apocalyptic Literature), as well as throughout rabbinical literature, Enoch is identical with Meṭaṭron = Μετάθρονος or Μετατύρανος (i.e., the highest, ministering spirit, who stands next to God and represents His rulership over the universe), so there is an important connecting-link between the conception of the Son of Man = Messiah, and the Logos, which appears repeatedly in Philo in place of the earthly future king (comp., e.g., his interpretation of "ẓemaḥ," Zech. vi. 12, in "De Confess." § 14; see Memra). The Fourth Book of Ezra (about 100 C.E.) presents both the pre-existent and the earthly Messiah. The latter is seen in ch. vii. 28, xi. 37-46, xii. 31-34, where the Messiah is represented as the Lion "who will spring from the seed of David," will destroy the fourth (i.e., the Roman) world-monarchy, will rule 400 years till the end of the Messianic interim, and then will die, together with all men. The former appears in the vision of the man rising from the sea (ch. xiii.). Here, as in the Messiological section, the Messiah is described as "one resembling a man" and is called "ille homo" or "ipse homo" (verses 3, 12). The statement is made also (under the influence of Dan. vii. 13) that he "flew with the clouds of heaven." Other points of contact with the Messiological Book are: the statement that "he is the one whom the Most High has reserved for many ages to deliver creation" (verse 26); the reference to his being hidden with God (verse 52)—"Even as no one can fathom nor learn what is in the depths of the sea, so none of the inhabitants of earth can see My son nor his escort [i.e., the host of angels who will accompany him when he appears upon earth], unless it be at the appointed hour"; and, finally, the obvious reference to his preexistence in heaven, where the promise is given to Ezra, "Thou wilt be taken from among men [to heaven] and wilt dwell with My son and with thy comrades until the end of time" (xiv. 9).

In Rabbinic Literature.

Whether the Messiah in Sibyllines v. 415-430, where he is called "a blessed man coming from heaven," is the preexistent or the earthly Messiah can not be determined. In the Assumptio Mosis, however (c. 4 B.C.), it may be concluded, on the ground of the identification of the Son of Man = Messiah with Enoch = Meṭaṭron in Enoch lxxi. 14, that it is the preexistent Messiah who is referred to (x. 2), for it is stated that, at the end of the last tribulation, when God's dominion will be established over all creation, "the hands of the angel who stands in the highest place will be filled, and he will immediately avenge them [Israel] on their enemies." As the author of the Fourth Book of Ezra (xiii.), as well as the author of the Messiological Book, evidently had Dan. vii. 13 in mind when he described the preexistent Messiah, it may be mentioned here that, while the Messianic interpretation of this passage prevails in the rabbinic literature (the oldest example is the Messianic tradition in Sanh. 98a, for which Joshua b. Levi is mentioned as authority), the Greek text of Dan. vii. 13 presents not only the Messianic interpretation of "Bar Nash," but unmistakably also, in καὶ ὡς παλαιὸς ἡμερῶν παρῆυ added after ὡς υἱὸς ἀνϑρώπου ἥρχετο, the conception of the preexistent Messiah. Moreover, contrary to the view held by many that all the passages concerning the Son of Man = Messiah in the Book of Enoch and IV Ezra are of Christian origin, it may be pointed out that the phrase "Bar Nash" (= "Son of Man") must have been a common name for an angel of the highest order among the Palestinian Jews of the first Christian centuries. Yer. Yoma v. relates that, when reference was made in the bet ha-midrash to Simon the Just's having, every year of the forty during which he was high priest, been accompanied into the Holy of Holies on the Day of Atonement by an "aged one," veiled and garbed in linen (i.e., by a heavenly being; comp. the "labush ha-badim" in Ezek. ix. 1, 3 et al.), R. Abbahu objected: "Does not the prohibition, 'No man shall be present in the Tabernacle when the high priest enters the sanctuary,' extend to those of whom it is said, 'the appearance of their countenance was that of a man's countenance'?" (Lev. xvi. 17; Ezek. i. 10). Whereupon the rejoinder was made, "Who says that that being was Bar Nash? It was the All Holy Himself." It may be noted in passing that this haggadah is of importance for the Greek text of Dan. vii. 13 as well as for the identification of the Son of Man = Messiah with Enoch = Meṭaṭron.

In the rabbinical apocalyptic literature the conception of an earthly Messiah is the prevailing one, and from the end of the first century of the common era it is also the one officially accepted by Judaism. As proof of this may be given: (1) "The Prayer for the Coming of the Messiah," mentioned above, inwhich the Messiah is called "descendant of David." (2) The information given in the second century by Justin ("Dialogus cum Tryphone," ch. xlix.) and by the author of "Philosophumena" (ix. 30). Both writers state expressly that, contrary to the belief of the Christians, the Jews emphasize the human origin of the Messiah, and the author of "Philosophumena" adds that they expect him to be descended from David. (3) The liturgy of later times, which, like the Daily Prayer, calls him the descendant of David throughout. His mission is, in all essential respects, the same as in the apocalypses of the older period: he is to free Israel from the power of the heathen world, kill its ruler and destroy his hosts, and set up his own kingdom of peace (comp. the descriptions of him in Jew. Encyc. i. 675, s.v. Apocalyptic Literature, Neo-Hebraic).

Heavenly Preexistence.

The conception of the preexistent Messiah is met with in Pesiḳ. R. xxxiii., xxxvi. (pp. 152b, 162, ed. Friedmann; comp. Yalḳ. i. 339). In accordance with the Messiological section of Enoch the former of these two passages says: "At the beginning of the creation of the world was born the King Messiah, who mounted into God's thoughts before the world was made"; and in the latter passage it is related that God contemplated the Messiah and his works before the creation of the world and concealed him under His throne; that Satan, having asked God who the Light was under His throne, was told it was the one who would bring him to shame in the future, and, being then allowed, at his request, to see the Messiah, he trembled and sank to the ground, crying out, "Truly this is the Messiah who will deliver me and all heathen kings over to hell." God calls the Messiah "Ephraim, my righteous Messiah."

The preexistent Messiah is presented also in the Haggadah (Pes. 54a; Ned. 39a; Yalḳ. i. 20; et al.), where the name of the Messiah is included among the seven things created before the world was made, and where he is called "Yinnon," reference being made to Ps. lxxii. 17 (which passage probably was in the mind of the author of the Messiological section of Enoch when writing xlviii. 3). That, contrary to the view of Weber ("Jüdische Theologie," 2d ed., p. 355) and others, it is actual preexistence which is meant here, and not predestination, is evident from the additional remark—"According to another view, only the Torah and the Throne of Glory were [actually] created; as to the other [five] things the intention was formed to create them" (Yalḳ., l.c.; in regard to "the name of the Messiah" compare the comment above to Enoch, xlviii. 3). Finally, the preexistence of the Messiah in paradise is minutely described in "The Revelation of R. Joshua b. Levi" (see Jew. Encyc. i. 680), in Midrash Konen (Jellinek, "B. H." ii. 29), and in "Seder Gan Eden" (ib. iii. 132 et seq., 195). In the first two, regardless of the apparent anomaly, the preexistent Messiah is called "Messiah ben David."

Earthly Preexistence.

The conception met with in the rabbinical literature of an earthly preexistence of the Messiah must be distinguished from that of his heavenly preexistence. It occurs in various forms, representing, probably, different stages of development. First, he is expected to lead a hidden life and then to step forth suddenly. (On this conception of the sudden, unexpected appearance of the Messiah comp. Matt. xxiv. 27, 43-44, where it is said that the Messiah will come like a thief in the night or like a flash of lightning.) This is the conception of him in Ex. R. i. and in Tan., Shemot, both of which say that as Moses, the first deliverer, was reared at the court of Pharaoh, so the future deliverer will grow up in the Roman capital; in agreement with this, in the Agadat ha-Mashiaḥ (Jellinek, l.c. iii. 142) it is said that the Messiah will suddenly be revealed to Israel in Rome. Then, again, the Messiah is represented as born, but not yet revealed. This conception appears as early as the second century in Justin Martyr's "Dialogus cum Tryphone" (ch. viii.), and in accordance with it is the passage Sanh. 98b, where R. Joshua ben Levi is quoted as saying that the Messiah is already born and is living in concealment at the gates of Rome. In Targ. Yer. to Micah iv. 8 the Messiah is on the earth, but because of the sins of the people he is still in hiding. Finally, the Messiah is thought of as born at a certain time in the past. This is the case in Yer. Ber. ii., which states that the Messiah was born at Bethlehem on the day the Temple was destroyed, and in the Apocalypse of Zerubbabel (see Jew. Encyc. i. 682), which declares he was born in the days of King David and is dwelling in Rome.

The notion, traceable to Ezek. xxxiv. 23 et al., that David himself is the Messiah, is another variation of the conception of earthly preexistence. It occurs in the apocalyptic fragment of the "Siddur" of R. Amram (see Jew. Encyc. i. 678, s.v. Apocalyptic Literature, 2) and in Yer. Ber. ii. The latter states that whether the King Messiah belongs to the living or to the dead, his name is David.

Messiah ben Joseph.

Finally, there must be mentioned a Messianic figure peculiar to the rabbinical apocalyptic literature—that of Messiah ben Joseph. The earliest mention of him is in Suk. 52a, b, where three statements occur in regard to him, for the first of which R. Dosa (c. 250) is given as authority. In the last of these statements only his name is mentioned, but the first two speak of the fate which he is to meet, namely, to fall in battle (as if alluding to a well-known tradition). Details about him are not found until much later, but he has an established place in the apocalypses of later centuries and in the midrash literature—in Saadia's description of the future ("Emunot we-De'ot," ch. viii.) and in that of Hai Gaon ("Ṭa'am Zeḳenim," p. 59). According to these, Messiah b. Joseph will appear prior to the coming of Messiah b. David; he will gather the children of Israel around him, march to Jerusalem, and there, after overcoming the hostile powers, reestablish the Temple-worship and set up his own dominion. Thereupon Armilus, according to one group of sources, or Gog and Magog, according to the other, will appear with their hosts before Jerusalem, wage war against Messiah b. Joseph, and slay him. His corpse, according to one group, will lie unburied in the streets of Jerusalem; according to theother, it will be hidden by the angels with the bodies of the Patriarchs, until Messiah b. David comes and resurrects him (comp. Jew. Encyc. i. 682, 684 [§§ 8 and 13]; comp. also Midr. Wayosha' and Agadat ha-Mashiaḥ in Jellinek, "B. H." i. 55 et seq., iii. 141 et seq.).

When and how this Messiah-conception originated is a question that has not yet been answered satisfactorily. It is not possible to consider Messiah b. Joseph the Messiah of the Ten Tribes. He is nowhere represented as such; though twice it is mentioned that a part of the Ten Tribes will be found among those who will gather about his standard. There is a possibility, however, as has been repeatedly maintained, that there is some connection between the Alexander saga and the Messiah b. Joseph tradition, for, in the Midrash, on the strength of Deut. xxxiii. 17, a pair of horns, with which he will "strike in all directions," is the emblem of Messiah b. Joseph (comp. Pirḳe R. El. xix.; Gen. R. lxxv.; Num. R. xiv.; et al.), just as in the apocalyptic Alexander tradition in the Koran (referred to above) the latter is called "The Double-Horned" ("Dhu al-Ḳarnain"). See also Eschatology; Jesus; Judaism.



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"The Word," in the sense of the creative or directive word or speech of God manifesting His power in the world of matter or mind; a term used especially in the Targum as a substitute for "the Lord" when an anthropomorphic expression is to be avoided.

—Biblical Data:

In Scripture "the word of the Lord" commonly denotes the speech addressed to patriarch or prophet (Gen. xv. 1; Num. xii. 6, xxiii. 5; I Sam. iii. 21; Amos v. 1-8); but frequently it denotes also the creative word: "By the word of the Lord were the heavens made" (Ps. xxxiii. 6; comp. "For He spake, and it was done"; "He sendeth his word, and melteth them [the ice]"; "Fire and hail; snow, and vapors; stormy wind fulfilling his word"; Ps. xxxiii. 9, cxlvii. 18, cxlviii. 8). In this sense it is said, "For ever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven" (Ps. cxix. 89). "The Word," heard and announced by the prophet, often became, in the conception of the seer, an efficacious power apart from God, as was the angel or messenger of God: "The Lord sent a word into Jacob, and it hath lighted upon Israel" (Isa. ix. 7 [A. V. 8], lv. 11); "He sent his word, and healed them" (Ps. cvii. 20); and comp. "his word runneth very swiftly" (Ps. cxlvii. 15).

Personification of the Word.

—In Apocryphal and Rabbinical Literature:

While in the Book of Jubilees, xii. 22, the word of God is sent through the angel to Abraham, in other cases it becomes more and more a personified agency: "By the word of God exist His works" (Ecclus. [Sirach] xlii. 15); "The Holy One, blessed be He, created the world by the 'Ma'amar'" (Mek., Beshallaḥ, 10, with reference to Ps. xxxiii. 6). Quite frequent is the expression, especially in the liturgy, "Thou who hast made the universe with Thy word and ordained man through Thy wisdom to rule over the creatures made by Thee" (Wisdom ix. 1; comp. "Who by Thy words causest the evenings to bring darkness, who openest the gates of the sky by Thy wisdom"; . . . "who by His speech created the heavens, and by the breath of His mouth all their hosts"; through whose "words all things were created"; see Singer's "Daily Prayer-Book," pp. 96, 290, 292). So also in IV Esdras vi. 38 ("Lord, Thou spakest on the first day of Creation: 'Let there be heaven and earth,' and Thy word hath accomplished the work"). "Thy word, O Lord, healeth all things" (Wisdom xvi. 12); "Thy word preserveth them that put their trust in Thee" (l.c. xvi. 26). Especially strong is the personification of the word in Wisdom xviii. 15: "Thine Almighty Word leaped down from heaven out of Thy royal throne as a fierce man of war." The Mishnah, with reference to the ten passages in Genesis (ch. i.) beginning with "And God said," speaks of the ten "ma'amarot" (= "speeches") by which the world was created (Abot v. 1; comp. Gen. R. iv. 2: "The upper heavens are held in suspense by the creative Ma'amar"). Out of every speech ["dibbur"] which emanated from God an angel was created (Ḥag. 14a). "The Word ["dibbur"] called none but Moses" (Lev. R. i. 4, 5). "The Word ["dibbur"] went forth from the right hand of God and made a circuit around the camp of Israel" (Cant. R. i. 13).

—In the Targum:

In the Targum the Memra figures constantly as the manifestation of the divinepower, or as God's messenger in place of God Himself, wherever the predicate is not in conformity with the dignity or the spirituality of the Deity.

Instead of the Scriptural "You have not believed in the Lord," Targ. Deut. i. 32 has "You have not believed in the word of the Lord"; instead of "I shall require it [vengeance] from him," Targ. Deut. xviii. 19 has "My word shall require it." "The Memra," instead of "the Lord," is "the consuming fire" (Targ. Deut. ix. 3; comp. Targ. Isa. xxx. 27). The Memra "plagued the people" (Targ. Yer. to Ex. xxxii. 35). "The Memra smote him" (II Sam. vi. 7; comp. Targ. I Kings xviii. 24; Hos. xiii. 14; et al.). Not "God," but "the Memra," is met with in Targ. Ex. xix. 17 (Targ. Yer. "the Shekinah"; comp. Targ. Ex. xxv. 22: "I will order My Memra to be there"). "I will cover thee with My Memra," instead of "My hand" (Targ. Ex. xxxiii. 22). Instead of "My soul," "My Memra shall reject you" (Targ. Lev. xxvi. 30; comp. Isa. i. 14, xlii. 1; Jer. vi. 8; Ezek. xxiii. 18). "The voice of the Memra," instead of "God," is heard (Gen. iii. 8; Deut. iv. 33, 36; v. 21; Isa. vi. 8; et al.). Where Moses says, "I stood between the Lord and you" (Deut. v. 5), the Targum has, "between the Memra of the Lord and you"; and the "sign between Me and you" becomes a "sign between My Memra and you" (Ex. xxxi. 13, 17; comp. Lev. xxvi. 46; Gen. ix. 12; xvii. 2, 7, 10; Ezek. xx. 12). Instead of God, the Memra comes to Abimelek (Gen. xx. 3), and to Balaam (Num. xxiii. 4). His Memra aids and accompanies Israel, performing wonders for them (Targ. Num. xxiii. 21; Deut. i. 30, xxxiii. 3; Targ. Isa. lxiii. 14; Jer. xxxi. 1; Hos. ix. 10 [comp. xi. 3, "the messenger-angel"]). The Memra goes before Cyrus (Isa. xlv. 12). The Lord swears by His Memra (Gen. xxi. 23, xxii. 16, xxiv. 3; Ex. xxxii. 13; Num. xiv. 30; Isa. xlv. 23; Ezek. xx. 5; et al.). It is His Memra that repents (Targ. Gen. vi. 6, viii. 21; I Sam. xv. 11, 35). Not His "hand," but His "Memra has laid the foundation of the earth" (Targ. Isa. xlviii. 13); for His Memra's or Name's sake does He act (l.c. xlviii. 11; II Kings xix. 34). Through the Memra God turns to His people (Targ. Lev. xxvi. 90; II Kings xiii. 23), becomes the shield of Abraham (Gen. xv. 1), and is with Moses (Ex. iii. 12; iv. 12, 15) and with Israel (Targ. Yer. to Num. x. 35, 36; Isa. lxiii. 14). It is the Memra, not God Himself, against whom man offends (Ex. xvi. 8; Num. xiv. 5; I Kings viii. 50; II Kings xix. 28; Isa. i. 2, 16; xlv. 3, 20; Hos. v. 7, vi. 7; Targ. Yer. to Lev. v. 21, vi. 2; Deut. v. 11); through His Memra Israel shall be justified (Targ. Isa. xlv. 25); with the Memra Israel stands in communion (Targ. Josh. xxii. 24, 27); in the Memra man puts his trust (Targ. Gen. xv. 6; Targ. Yer. to Ex. xiv. 31; Jer. xxxix. 18, xlix. 11).

Mediatorship.

Like the Shekinah (comp. Targ. Num. xxiii. 21), the Memra is accordingly the manifestation of God. "The Memra brings Israel nigh unto God and sits on His throne receiving the prayers of Israel" (Targ. Yer. to Deut. iv. 7). It shielded Noah from the flood (Targ. Yer. to Gen. vii. 16) and brought about the dispersion of the seventy nations (l.c. xi. 8); it is the guardian of Jacob (Gen. xxviii. 20-21, xxxv. 3) and of Israel (Targ. Yer. to Ex. xii. 23, 29); it works all the wonders in Egypt (l.c. xiii. 8, xiv. 25); hardens the heart of Pharaoh (l.c. xiii. 15); goes before Israel in the wilderness (Targ. Yer. to Ex. xx. 1); blesses Israel (Targ. Yer. to Num. xxiii. 8); battles for the people (Targ. Josh. iii. 7, x. 14, xxiii. 3). As in ruling over the destiny of man the Memra is the agent of God (Targ. Yer. to Num. xxvii. 16), so also is it in the creation of the earth (Isa. xlv. 12) and in the execution of justice (Targ. Yer. to Num. xxxiii. 4). So, in the future, shall the Memra be the comforter (Targ. Isa. lxvi. 13): "My Shekinah I shall put among you, My Memra shall be unto you for a redeeming deity, and you shall be unto My Name a holy people" (Targ. Yer. to Lev. xxii. 12). "My Memra shall be unto you like a good plowman who takes off the yoke from the shoulder of the oxen"; "the Memra will roar to gather the exiled" (Targ. Hos. xi. 5, 10). The Memra is "the witness" (Targ. Yer. xxix. 23); it will be to Israel like a father (l.c. xxxi. 9) and "will rejoice over them to do them good" (l.c. xxxii. 41). "In the Memra the redemption will be found" (Targ. Zech. xii. 5). "The holy Word" was the subject of the hymns of Job (Test. of Job, xii. 3, ed. Kohler).

The Logos.

It is difficult to say how far the rabbinical concept of the Memra, which is used now as a parallel to the divine Wisdom and again as a parallel to the Shekinah, had come under the influence of the Greek term "Logos," which denotes both word and reason, and, perhaps owing to Egyptian mythological notions, assumed in the philosophical system of Heraclitos, of Plato, and of the Stoa the metaphysical meaning of world-constructive and world-permeating intelligence (see Reizenstein, "Zwei Religionsgeschichtliche Fragen," 1901, pp. 83-111; comp. Aall, "Der Logos," and the Logos literature given by Schürer, "Gesch." i. 3, 542-544). The Memra as a cosmic power furnished Philo the corner-stone upon which he built his peculiar semi-Jewish philosophy. Philo's "divine thought," "the image" and "first-born son" of God, "the archpriest," "intercessor," and "paraclete" of humanity, the "arch type of man" (see Philo), paved the way for the Christian conceptions of the Incarnation ("the Word become flesh") and the Trinity. The Word which "the unoriginated Father created in His own likeness as a manifestation of His own power" appears in the Gnostic system of Marcus (Irenæus, "Adversus Hæreses," i. 14). In the ancient Church liturgy, adopted from the Synagogue, it is especially interesting to notice how often the term "Logos," in the sense of "the Word by which God made the world, or made His Law or Himself known to man," was changed into "Christ" (see "Apostolic Constitutions," vii. 25-26, 34-38, et al.). Possibly on account of the Christian dogma, rabbinic theology, outside of the Targum literature, made little use of the term "Memra." See Logos.



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In the Targumim.

The majestic presence or manifestation of God which has descended to "dwell" among men. Like Memra (= "word"; "logos") and "Yeḳara" (i.e., "Kabod" = "glory"), the term was used by the Rabbis in place of "God" where the anthropomorphic expressions of the Bible were no longer regarded as proper (see Anthropomorphism). The word itself is taken from such passages as speak of God dwelling either in the Tabernacle or among the people of Israel (see Ex. xxv. 8, xxix. 45-46; Num. v. 3, xxxv. 34; I Kings vi. 13; Ezek. xliii. 9; Zech. ii. 14 [A. V. 10]). Occasionally the name of God is spoken of as descending (Deut. xii. 11; xiv. 23; xvi. 6, 11; xxvi. 2; Neh. i. 9). It is especially said that God dwells in Jerusalem (Zech. viii. 3; Ps. cxxxv. 21; I Chron. xxiii. 25), on Mount Zion (Isa. viii. 18; Joel iv. [A. V. iii.] 17, 21; Ps. xv. 1, lxxiv. 2), and in the Temple itself (Ezek. xliii. 7). Allusion is made also to "him that dwelt in the bush" (Deut. xxxiii. 16, ); and it is said that "the glory of the Lord abode upon Mount Sinai" (Ex. xxiv. 16). The term "Shekinah," which is Hebrew, whereas "Memra" and "Yeḳara" are Aramaic, took the place of the latter two in Talmudand Midrash, and thus absorbed the meaning which they have in the Targum, where they almost exclusively occur. Nevertheless the word "Shekinah" occurs most frequently in the Aramaic versions, since they were intended for the people and were actually read to them, and since precautions had therefore to be taken against possible misunderstandings in regard to the conception of God. The word "dwell" in the Hebrew text is accordingly rendered in the Targumim by the phrase "let the Shekinah rest" (e.g., Ex. xxv. 8; xxix. 45, 46; Num. v. 3, xxxv. 34; Deut. xxxii. 10 [R. V. "he compassed him about"]; Ps. lxxiv. 2). Onḳelos translates "Elohim" in Gen. ix. 27 by "Shekinah"; and wherever the person, the dwelling, or the remoteness of God is mentioned, he paraphrases by the same word (Num. xiv. 14, 42; xvi. 3; xxxv. 34; Deut. i. 42, iii. 24, iv. 39, vi. 15, vii. 21, xxiii. 16, xxxi. 17); so too, wherever the Name occurs, he substitutes for it the term "Shekinah" (Deut. xii. 5, 11, 21), and "presence" or "face" is translated the same way (Ex. xxxiii. 14-15; Num. vi. 25; Deut. xxxi. 17-18; see Maybaum, "Anthropomorphien," etc., pp. 52-54). Targ. pseudo-Jonathan and Yerushalmi adopt a like system, as in Ps. xvi. 8, lxxxix. 47, Lam. ii. 19, and Cant. vi. 1 (ib. pp. 64 et seq.). Where the text states that God dwells in the Temple above the cherubim (as in Hab. ii. 20; I Sam. iv. 4; II Sam. vi. 2; I Kings viii. 12, 13; xiv. 21; Ps. lxxiv. 2), or that God has been seen (Isa. vi. 6 et seq.; Ex. iii. 6; Ezek. i. 1; Lev. ix. 4), the Yerushalmi has "Shekinah"; and even where it describes God as abiding in heaven, the same word is used (Isa. xxxiii. 5; Deut. iii. 24, iv. 39). This statement holds true also of allusions to His remoteness or to the hiding of His face (Hos. v. 6; Isa. viii. 17, xlv. 15; Hastings, "Dict. Bible," iv. 488b). The Temple is called the "house of the Shekinah" (Targ. Onḳ. to Deut. xii. 5; Ps. xlix. 15, cviii. 8); and the term likewise occurs in connection with "glory" ("yeḳara"; Ruth ii. 12; Cant. iii. 6, iv. 6, v. 6; Ps. xliv. 25, lxviii. 19, cxv. 16; Jer. xix. 18) and with "holiness" (Cant. i. 10, ii. 2, iii. 2, vi. 1; Ps. lxxiv. 12, lxxxvi. 3).

In the Apocrypha and New Testament.

Since the Shekinah is light, those passages of the Apocrypha and New Testament which mention radiance, and in which the Greek text reads δόξα, refer to the Shekinah, there being no other Greek equivalent for the word. Thus, according to Luke ii. 9, "the glory of the Lord [δόζα Ḳυρίου] shone round about them" (comp. II Peter i. 17; Eph. i. 6; II Cor. iv. 6); and it is supposed that in John i. 14 and Rev. xxi. 3 the words σκηνοῦν and σκηνή were expressly selected as implying the Shekinah. The idea that God dwells in man and that man is His temple (e.g., Col. ii. 9; II Cor. vi. 16; John xiv. 23) is merely a more realistic conception of the resting of the Shekinah on man.

Nature of the Shekinah.



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He is Israel's God. Not on account of any merits of its own (Deut. vii. 7-8, ix. 4-7), but because of God's special designs, because the fathers loved Him (Deut. x. 11-16), Israel was chosen by God (Ex. xix. 4-6; Deut. iv. 20, xxxii. 9; Isa. xli. 8-9, xliii. 21; Jer. ii. 2, and often elsewhere). Hence, in Israel's experience are illustrated God's power, love, and compassion, as, in fact, it is Israel's sole destiny to be the witness to God (Isa. xliv. 8). For Israel, therefore, God is a jealous God. He can not tolerate that Israel, appointed to be His portion (Deut. xxxii. 9), His servant (Isa. xliv. 21), His people joined unto Him for His name and glory and ornament (Jer. xiii. 11, A. V., "for a name, and for a praise, and for a glory"), should worship other gods. Israel's task is to be holy as He is holy (Lev. xix. 2; Deut. xxvi. 19). Israel itself does not fully recognize this. God sends prophets again and again to instruct and admonish His people (Jer. vii. 25, xi. 7, xxxv. 15; Isa. xxix. 13-14).

In Israel God's judgments are purposed to impress upon His people the duty placed upon it. Greater suffering He metes out to Israel (Lev. xxvi. 40; Deut. iv. 30-31; viii. 5, 19; xi. 16-17; xxxii. 15; Isa. i. 19-20, iv. 3-4, xlii. 24-xliii. 1, xlviii. 9-11; Jer. ii. 19, v. 18-19; Amos iii. 2), but He will not permit Israel to perish (Isa. xli. 10-14; xlv. 17; li. 7-8; liv. 10, 17; Jer. xxxi. 36). And Israel, brought to faithfulness, will be instrumental in winning the whole earth to God (Isa. ii. 2-4, xi. 9, xlv. 23, lxv. 25; Micah iv. 1-4; Jer. iii. 17; see Messiah).

God is Israel's lawgiver. His law is intended to make Israel holy. That Israel serve God, so as to win all people to the truth, is God's demand (Lev. xx. 26; Deut. iv. 6). God's unity is indicated in the one sanctuary. But legalism and sacerdotalism are withal not the ultimate (Ps. l. 7-13; I Sam. xv. 22: "to obey is better than sacrifice"; Isa. i. 11; Jer. vii. 21-23; Hosea vi. 6: "I desired love [A. V. "mercy"] and not sacrifice").

Nor is the law a scheme of salvation. Nowhere in the Old Testament is the doctrine taught that God must be satisfied (see Fall of Man; Sin). Sin is impotent against God, and righteousness does not benefit Him (Job xxxv. 6-8). God is omnipotent (Ps. x. 3-4). At one with Him, man is filled with joy and with a sense of serene security (Ps. xvi. 5-6, 8-9; xxvii. 1-4). Without this all else is sham (Ps. xlix. 7-13). Happy, therefore, the man who heeds God's instruction (Ps. xciv. 12; Prov. iii. 11-12). Sin never attains its aims (Ps. xxxiv. 22; Prov. xi. 19; I Sam. xxiv. 14; Job viii. 13-14, xv. 20-31). It is thus that God documents His supremacy; but unto man (and Israel) He gives freedom to choose between life and death (Deut. xxx. 15-20). He is near to them that revere Him (Ps. lxxxv. 9-14). Though His ways are not man's ways, and His thoughts not man's thoughts (Isa. lv. 8), yet to this one certainty man may cleave; namely, that God's word will come to pass and His purposes will be carried out (ib. verses 9, 10, 11).

The God of the Bible is not a national God, though in the fate of one people are mirrored the universal facts of His kingship and fatherhood, and the truth is emphasized that not by might, nor by power, but by God's spirit are the destinies of the world and of man ordered (Zech. iv. 6; Mal. i. 11; Ps. cxiii., cxv.). The God of the Bible is a person; i.e., a being self-conscious, with will and purpose, even though by searching man can not find Him out (Job xi. 7; Ps. xciv. 7, 8, 9, 10, 11; Isa. xl. 28; Ps. cxlv. 3).E. G. H.

—In Post-Biblical Literature:

In the Apocrypha of Palestinian origin the Biblical teachings concerning God are virtually reaffirmed without material modifications. In some books anthropomorphic expressions are avoided altogether; in the others they are toned down. The "hand of God," for instance (Ecclus. [Sirach] xxxiii. 3), is in the parallel distich explained as "His might." The "eyes of God" symbolize His knowledge and providence (Baruch ii. 17); the "voice of God" is synonymous with His will (ib. ii. 22, iii. 4).

In the Palestinian Apocrypha.

His unity, postulating Him as the absolute, omni-present, and therefore as the omniscient, eternal, and living God, is accentuated; while in His relations to the world and its inhabitants He is manifest as the Creator, Ruler, the perfectly righteous Judge, requiting evil and rewarding good, yet, in His mercy, forgiving sin. To Him all nature is subject, while He executes His designs according to His inscrutable wisdom. The history of former generations is cited in proof of the contention that they who confide in Him have never been disappointed (Ecclus. [Sirach] ii. 10); for God is full of mercy, pardoning sins, and is the great Helper (ib. verse 11).

Good and evil proceed from God, as do life and death (ib. xi. 14). Yet sin is not caused by God, but by man's own choice (ib. xv. 11 et seq.). God is omnipresent. Though He is on high, He takes heed of men's ways (ib. xvi. 17, xvii. 15-16). Mountains and the ocean are in His power (ib. verses 18 et seq.).

Being the Creator, He planned the eternal order of nature (ib. verses 26 et seq.). He also fashioned man (ib. xvii. 1 et seq.). Whatever strength man has is from Him (ib. verse 3). The eyes of men are enabled by Him to see "the majesty of His glory," andtheir ears to hear "His glorious voice" (ib. verse 13). He liveth in all eternity and judgeth all things. None may search out His wondrous might (ib. xviii. 1-2), or describe His grace (ib. verse 3). To Him naught may be added, and from Him nothing may be taken away (ib. verse 6, xlii. 21). Even the "holy ones" are not competent to relate the marvels of His works (ib. xlii. 17). He announces that which was and that which is to be and all hidden things (ib. verses 19-20). He is one from all eternity (ib. verse 21). He is the Living God (ib. verse 23). Among all the varieties of things He has created nothing without purpose (, ib. verse 24).

The "wisdom of God" is spoken of and exalted in the same strains as in the Biblical books (Prov. vii., viii.). All wisdom is from God and is with Him forever (Ecclus. [Sirach.] i. 1). It came forth from the mouth of the Most High (ib. xxiv. 3); but it was created before all things (ib. i. 4). It is subject to the will of Him who alone is "wise, and greatly to be feared," seated on His throne (ib. i. 8). God "poured it out over all His works" (ib. i. 7; comp. xxiv. 31). However close this description of wisdom may come to a personification, it is plain that it is free from any element which might be construed as involving a departure from the Biblical position regarding God's absolute unity.

In Alexandrian Apocrypha.

It is in the Alexandrian Apocrypha that modifications of the Biblical doctrine appear; but even here are to be found books whose theology is a reiteration of the Biblical teachings. The so-called Third Book of the Maccabees, in the prayer of the high priest Simon, invokes "God as the King of the Heavens, the Ruler of all creatures, the most Holy, the sole Governor, the Omnipotent," declaring Him to be "a just ruler," and appeals to the events of past days in support of the faith in God's supremacy and in Israel's appointment to glorify Him (III Macc. ii. 1-20) who is all-merciful and the maker of peace.

The third book of the "Oracula Sibyllina," also, reiterates with great emphasis and without equivocation the unity of God, who is alone in His superlative greatness. God is imperishable, everlasting, self-existent, alone subsisting from eternity to eternity. He alone really is: men are nothing. He, the omnipotent, is wholly invisible to the fleshly eye. Yet He dwells in the firmament (Sibyllines, i. 1, 7-17, 20, 32; ii. 1-3, 17, 36, 46). From this heavenly abode He exercises His creative power, and rules over the universe. He sustains all that is. He is "all-nourishing," the "leader of the cosmos," the constant ruler of all things. He is the "supreme Knower" (ib. i. 3, 4, 5, 8, 15, 17, 35; ii. 42). He is "the One God sending out rains, winds, earthquakes, lightnings, famines, pestilences, dismal sorrows, and so forth" (ib. i. 32-34). By these agencies He expresses His indignation at the doings of the wicked (ib. ii. 19-20); while the good are rewarded beyond their deserts (ib. ii. 1-8). God's indwelling in man (πᾶσι βροτοῖσιν ἐνών)"as the faculty of judgment" is also taught (ib. i. 18). This indwelling of God, which has been claimed as an indication of the book's leaning toward a modification of the transcendentalism of the Biblical idea of God, may perhaps rest on a faulty reading (comp. Drummond, "Philo Judæus," i. 173).

In the Septuagint, also, the treatment of anthropomorphic statements alone exhibits a progress beyond the earlier Biblical conceptions. For example, in Gen. vi. 6-7 "it repented the Lord" is softened into "He took it to heart"; Ex. xxiv. 9-10, "They [Moses, Aaron, and the others mentioned) saw the place where the God of Israel stood" is rendered "They saw the God of Israel"; Ex. xv. 3, instead of "The Lord is a man of war," has "The Lord is one who crushes wars"; Josh. iv. 24, "the power" for "the hand." In Isa. vi. 1, the "train of his [God's] robe" is changed into "his glory" (see Zeller, "Die Philosophie der Griechen," iii., part ii., 254). As the Targumim, so the Septuagint, on account of a more spiritualized conception of God, takes care to modify the earlier and grosser terminology; but even the phrase ὅ Θεὸς τῶν δυνάμεων (Isa. xlii. 13) does not imply the recognition of powers self-existent though under the control of God. The doctrine of the unity of God is put forth as the central truth also in the Septuagint.

Hellenistic Influences.

Nor is this theology toned down in other Hellenistic writings. While in style and method under the influence of Greek thought, the fragments of Demetrius, Pseudo-Artapanus, Pseudo-Phocylides, Ezekielus' tragedy on Exodus, and the so-called Fourth Book of Maccabees can not be said to put forth notions concerning God at variance with the Palestinian theology. The Wisdom of Solomon, the Letter of Aristeas, and the fragments of Aristobulus, however, do this. In the first of these three, Israel's God is pronounced to be the only God. He lives in solitary supremacy, responsible to Himself alone (Wisdom xii. 12-14). He is (τόν ὅντα ib. xiii. 1). He is the "eternal light" (ib. vii. 26). He is the Artificer (Τεχνίτης) who created or prepared (both verbs are used) the various things in nature (ib. xviii. 1-5). This uncertainty in the verb descriptive of God's part in creation suggests that the old Biblical conception of the Creator's functions is in this book attenuated to the bringing into order of formless primeval matter (comp. ib. xi. 17). Matter is compared to a lump of wax which, originally devoid of attributes, owes its qualities to divine agency (Drummond, l.c. p. 188).

But, while the cosmos is an expression and the result of the greatness, power, and beauty of God, He remains transcendent above it. Nevertheless, He continues to administer all things (Wisdom xii. 15, 18; xv. 1). It is His providence that acts as a pilot or rudder (ib. xiv. 3). In this is manifested His truth, justice, mercy, loving-kindness, and long-suffering (ib. xi. 23; xii. 15, 18; xv. 1). It is among His holy ones that His grace and mercy are conspicuous; but evil-doers are punished (iii. 9, 10). The pious are those who dwell with wisdom (vii. 28). God possesses immediate knowledge of men's secrets, of their speech, feelings, and thoughts (ib. i. 6). He foreknows but does not foreordain the future. Necessity and right (ἀνάγκη and δίκη) are both postulated. The former blinds the judgment of the impious. If they continue in their impenitence, they will be overtaken by their punishment(ib. i. 15; ii. 6-22; iii. 2-17; iv. 3-14; xii. 2, 10, 20; and more especially xix. 1-5). The avenging Right is, however, not hypostatized or personified to any great degree (ib. i. 8, xi. 20, xiv. 31, xviii. 11). God is not the creator of evil (ib. i. 12-14); therefore in evil He is confronted with a tendency that He can not tolerate. Hence He or His is the avenging justice.

God is neither unknown nor unknowable. The external universe reveals Him. It implies the existence of a primal source greater than it (ib. xiii. 1-9); and, again, through wisdom and "the spirit" sent from on high, God is found by them who do not disobey Him (ib. i. 2-4, ix. 13-17). Yet man can never attain unto perfect knowledge of the divine essence (see Gfrörer, cited by Drummond, l.c. p. 198). Notwithstanding God's transcendence, anthropopathic phraseology is introduced (Wisdom iv. 18, "God shall laugh"; "His right hand" and "arm," v. 16; "His hand," vii. 16, x. 20, xi. 17, xix. 8). This proves that the doctrine of intermediate agents is not fully developed in the book, though in its presentation of God's wisdom elements appear that root in this conception. Certainly the question had begun to force itself upon the writer's mind: How is it that God enthroned on high is yet omnipresent in the universe? Like the Stoics, the author assumes an all-penetrating divine principle which appears as the rational order of the cosmos and as the conscious reason in man. Hence God's spirit is all-pervasive (ib. i. 6-7). This spirit is, in a certain sense, distinct from God, an extension of the Divine Being, bringing God into relation with the phenomenal world. Still, this spirit is not a separate or subordinate person. "Wisdom" and this "spirit" are used interchangeably (ib. ix. 17); "wisdom is a spirit that is" a lover of mankind (ib. i. 4-6); wisdom is "a vapor of the power of God," a reflection of eternal light (ib. vii. 25-26).

"Wisdom" of God.

This wisdom has twenty-one attributes: it is "an understanding spirit, holy, alone in kind, manifold, subtile, freely moving, clear in utterance, unpolluted, distinct, unharmed, loving what is good, keen, unhindered, beneficent, loving toward man, steadfast, sure, free from care, all-powerful, all-surveying, and penetrating through all spirits that are quick of understanding, pure, most subtile" (ib. vii. 22-24). Wisdom is a person, the "assessor" at God's throne (ib. ix. 4); the chooser of God's works (ib. viii. 3-4). She was with God when He made the cosmos (ib. ix. 9). She is the artificer of all things (ib. vii. 21). As all this is elsewhere predicated of God also, it is plain that this "wisdom" is regarded only as an instrument, not as a delegate of the Divine. The Wisdom of Solomon speaks also of the "Logos" (ib. ii. 2-3, ix. 1-2, xvi. 12, xviii. 14-16); and this, taken in connection with its peculiar conception of wisdom, makes the book an important link in the chain leading from the absolute God-conception of Palestinian Judaism to the theory of the mediating agency of the Word (Άόγος, "Memra") in Philo. The Aristeas Letter does not present as clear a modification of the God-conception (but see Eleazar's statement therein, "there is only one God and 'His power' is through all things"). Aristobulus, in the Orphic verses, teaches that God is invisible (verse 20), but that through the mind He may be beheld (verses 11, 12). Maker and Ruler of the world, He is Himself the beginning, middle, and end (verses 8, 34, 35, 39). But wisdom existed before heaven and earth; God is the "molder of the cosmos" (verse 8)—statements which, by no means clear enough to form the basis of a conclusion, yet suggest also in Aristobulus' theology a departure from the doctrine of God's transcendence and His immediate control of all as the Creator ex nihilo.

Philo is the philosopher who boldly, though not always consistently, attempts to harmonize the supramundane existence and majesty of the one God with His being the Creator and Governor of all. Reverting to the Old Testament idiom, according to which "by the word of Yhwh were the heavens made" (Ps. xxxiii. [xxxii.] 6)—which passage is also at the root of the Targumic use of Memra, (see Anthropomorphism)—and on the whole but not consistently assuming that matter was uncreated (see Creation), he introduces the Logos as the mediating agent between God on high and the phenomenal world.

Philo's Logos.

Philo is also the first Jewish writer who undertakes to prove the existence of God. His arguments are of two kinds: those drawn from nature, and those supplied by the intuitions of the soul. Man's mind, also invisible, occupies in him the same position as does that of God in the universe ("De Opificio Mundi," § 23). From this one arrives at a knowledge of God. The mind is the sovereign of the body. The cosmos must also have a king who holds it together and governs it justly, and who is the Supreme ("De Abrahamo," § 16; "De Migratione Abrahami," § 33). From a ship man forms the idea of a ship-builder. Similarly, from the cosmos he must conceive the notion of the Father and Creator, the great and excellent and all-knowing artist ("De Monarchia," i. 4; "De Præmiis et Pœnis," § 7). For a first and an efficient cause man must look outside of the material universe, which fails in the points of eternity and efficiency ("De Confusione Linguarum," §§ 21, 25; "De Somniis," i. 33). This cause is mind. But man has the gift of immortal thoughts ("De Eo Quod Deterius Potiori Insidiatur," § 24): these culminate in the apprehension of God; they press beyond the limits of the entire phenomenal world to the Unbegotten ("De Plantatione Noe," § 5). This intuition of God was the especial prerogative of the Prophets, of Abraham, and of Jacob.

The essence of God is unknown to man, whose conceptions are colored through the medium of his own nature. Anthropopathisms and anthropomorphisms are wicked. God is incorporeal. He is without any irrational affections of the soul. God is a free, self-determining mind. His benevolence is due not to any incapacity of His for evil, but to His free preference for the good (ib. § 20).

Man's personality lifts him above the rest of the creatures. In analogy therewith, Philo gives God the attributes of personality, which are not restrictive, but the very reverse (Drummond, "Philo Judæus," ii. 15). Efficiency is the property of God;susceptibility, that of the begotten ("De Cherubim," § 24). God, therefore, is not only the First Cause, but He is the still efficient ground of all that is and comes to pass. He never pauses in His creative activity ("De Allegoriis Legum," i. 3). The feebleness of the human mind precludes the possibility of man's knowing God as He is in Himself (ib. iii. 73). God is without qualities (ib. i. 13). God is transcendent. He contains, but is not contained (περιέχων οὐ περιεχόμενος); yet He is also within the universe. He is omnipresent (comp. "De Confusione Linguarum," § 27, "De Posteritate Caini," § 5); still He is above the conditions of space and time ("De Posteritate Caini," § 5; "Quod Deus Sit Immutabilis," § 6). He is complete in Himself, and contains within His own being the sum of all conceivable good ("De Mutatione Nominum," § 4). He is perfect; He is omniscient ("De Eo Quod Deterius Potiori Insidiatur," § 42); He is omnipotent; He is free from evil and, therefore, can not be its source ("De Profugis," § 15); He is without passion as the most perfectly reasonable being, as the efficient and not the susceptible. God cares for the world and its parts (see Providence) ("De Opificio Mundi," § 61). He is the "Archon of the great city," "the pilot managing the universe with saving care" ("De Decem Oraculis," § 12).

It is in the development of his theory of the divine powers that Philo injects into his theology elements not altogether in concordance with antecedent Jewish thought. These intelligible and invisible powers, though subject to God, partake of His mystery and greatness. They are immaterial. They are uncircumscribed and infinite, independent of time, and unbegotten ("Quod Deus Sit Immutabilis," § 17). They are "most holy" ("Fragmenta," ii. 655), incapable of error ("De Confusione Linguarum," § 23). Among these powers, through which God works His ends, is the Logos. "God is the most generic Thing; and His Logos is second" ("De Allegoriis Legum," ii. 21). "This Logos is the divine seal of the entire cosmos" ("De Somniis," ii. 6). It is the archetypal idea with which all things were stamped ("De Mutatione Nominum," § 23). It is the law of and in all things, which is not corruptible ("De Ebrietate," § 35). It is the bond of the universe, filling a function analogous to that of the soul in man ("Quis Rerum Divinarum Heres Sit," § 48). It is God's son (see Logos; Philo).

Vacillating though it was, the theory of the divine powers and the Logos, as elaborated by Philo, certainly introduced views into the theology of Judaism of far-reaching consequences in the development of the God-idea if not of the Synagogue at least of the Church. The absolute unity and transcendence of God were modified materially, though the Biblical notion of the likeness of man to God was in the system developed in a manner adopted again by the modern Jewish theologians (see below). Talmudic and medieval Judaism were only indirectly affected by this bold attempt to save the transmundane and supramundane implications of the God-concept and still find an explanation for the immanence of the divine in man and in the world. The Pharisaic Psalms of Solomon, for instance, echo without the least equivocation the theological constructions of the Biblical books (see ii. 15-18, 32-37); and the other apocalyptic writings (Enoch; Book of Jubilees; Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs) present no essentially new points of view or even any augmentations. E. G. H.

The Shema'.

—In Talmudic Literature:

The Hellenistic modifications of the Biblical God-concept were further developed in the propositions of the heretical sects, such as the Minim or Gnostics, and of the Judæo-Christians and Christians. To controvert their departures from the fundamental positions of Judaism, the Palestinian synagogue, as did all later Judaism with the exception of the cabalists (see Cabala), laid all the greater stress on the unity of God, and took all the greater precaution to purge the concept from any and all human and terrestrial similarities. The Shema' (Deut. vi. 4 et seq.) was invested with the importance of a confession of faith. Recited twice daily (Ber. i. 1), the concluding word "eḥad" was given especial prominence, emphatic and prolonged enunciation being recommended ("kol ha-ma'arik be-eḥad"; Ber. 19a). Audible enunciation was required for the whole sentence (Sifre, Deut. 31: "Mi-kan amru: ha-ḳore et shema' welohishmia' le-ozno lo yaẓa"). Upon Israel especially devolved the duty of proclaiming God's unity ("leyaḥed shemo beyoter"). The repetition of "Yhwh" in the verse is held to indicate that God is one both in the affairs of this world and in those of the world to come (Yalḳ., Deut. 833). "The Eternal is Israel's portion" (Lam. iii. 24, Hebr.) demonstrates Israel's duty in the Shema' to proclaim God's unity and imperishability over against the sun-, moon-, and star-worship of the heathen (Lam. R. iii. 24; comp. Deut. R. ii., end). The "eḥad" is also taken in the sense of "meyuḥad," i.e., unique, unlike any other being (Meg. 28). Two powers ("reshuyot"), therefore, can not be assumed, as Deut. xxxii. 39 proves (Tan., Yitro; Jellinek,"B. H." i. 110); and the opening sentence of the Decalogue confirms this (Mek., Yitro, v.; comp. Yalḳ., Ex. 286). In the historical events, though God's manifestations are varied and differ according to the occasion, one and the same God appears: at the Red Sea, a warrior; at Sinai, the author of the Decalogue; in the days of Daniel, an old, benignant man (Yalḳ. l.c.). God has neither father, nor son, nor brother (Deut. R. ii.).

One "Reshut."

Pains are taken to refute the arguments based on the grammatical plurals employed in Biblical texts when referring to God. "Elohim" does not designate a plurality of deities. The very context shows this, as the verbs in the predicate are in the singular. The phrase "Let us make man in our image" (Gen. i. 26) is proved by the subsequent statement, "so God created man in his own image" (ib. verse 27), to refer to one God only (Yer. Ber. ix.; Gen. R. viii., xix.). Nor, according to R. Gamaliel, is the use of both "bara" and "yaẓar," to connote God's creative action, evidence of the existence of two distinct divine powers (Gen. R. i.). The reason why in the beginning one man only was fashioned was to disprove the contention of those that believe in more than one personality in God (Sanh. 38a). God had neither associate nor helper (Sanh. 38b; Yer.Shab. vi. 8d; Eccl. R. iv. 8). The ever-recurrent principle throughout haggadic theological speculations is that there is only one "Reshut" ("Reshut aḥat hu" = "personality").

From this emphasis upon the unity and immutability of God, Weber, among others (see his "Jüdische Theologic," p. 153, Leipsic, 1897), has drawn the inference that the Jewish God was apprehended as the Absolute, persisting in and for Himself alone—supramundane and therefore extramundane also. Between Him and the world and man there is no affinity and no bond of union. This view, however, neglects to take into account the thousand and one observations and interpretations of the Rabbis in which the very reverse doctrine is put forth. The bond between this one God—supreme, and in no way similar to man—and His creatures is very close (comp. the discussion of the effect of the Shema' taken from Yer. Ber. in Yalḳ., Deut. 836). It is not that subsisting between a despot and his abject, helpless slaves, but that between a loving father and his children. The passages bearing on the point do not support Weber's arbitrary construction that the implications of the names "Elohim" as "middat hadin" (justice) and "Yhwh" as "middat ha-raḥamim" (mercy) merely convey the notion of a supreme despot who capriciously may or may not permit mercy to temper revengeful justice (Weber, l.c.). In the rabbinical as in the Biblical conception of God, His paternal pity and love are never obscured (see Compassion).

Nor is it true, as Weber puts it and many after him have repeated, that the Jewish conception of God lacks that "self-communicating love which . . . presupposes its own immanence in the other" Weber, l.c.). R. Johanan's parable of the king and his son certainly demonstrates the very reverse. "A king's son was made to carry a beam. The king, upon seeing this, commanded that the beam be laid on his own shoulders. So does God invite sinners to lay their sins upon Him" (Midr. Teh. to Ps. xxii. 6). The anti-Pauline point of the parable is patent. The convenient restriction of the term "abinu sheba-shamayim" (our father which art in heaven) to mean, when used in a Jewish prayer, "the father of the nation," while when found in a supposedly non-Jewish prayer (see Lord's Prayer) it is interpreted to express the filial relation of every human soul to the Father, rests on no proof. The Rabbis denationalized and individualized their conception of God as clearly as did the Jewish compilers of the Gospels. "God used the phrase 'I am Yhwh, thy God' advisedly because He was the God of every individual man, woman, or child" (thy God, not your God) (Yalḳ., Deut. 286).

In the quaint presentation of their views on God's providence, the haggadists strike this note as well: "God chooses His own. Him whose deeds He is pleased with, He brings near unto Himself" (Midr. Shemuel, viii.; Num. R. iii.). "God is busy making marriages." (see Deism; Lev. R. viii., lxviii.; Pesiḳ. 11b; Midr. Shemuel v.; Tan., Bemidbar, ed. Buber, 18). "God builds ladders for some to ascend [become rich], for others to descend [become poor]" (Tan., Maṭṭot and Ki Tissa, ed. Buber, and passages quoted in the foregoing sentence). "God does not provide for Israel alone, but for all lands: He does not guard Israel alone, but all men" (Sifre, Deut. 40). "None will wound as much as a finger here below unless this is the divine decree concerning him from above" (Ḥul. 7b). These passages, which might easily be indefinitely multiplied, are illustrative of the thought running through haggadic theology; and they amply demonstrate the fallacy of the view denying to the God-concept of rabbinical Judaism individualistic and denationalized elements.

In the Targumim.

The care with which anthropomorphisms are avoided in the Targumim is not due to dogmatic zeal in emphasizing the transcendental character of the Godhead, but to the endeavor not to use phraseology which might in the least degree create the presumption of God's corporeality. Hence the introduction of the particle "ke-'illu" (as it were) in the paraphrasing of passages that might suggest similarity between God and man's sensuous nature (Yer. Targ. to Gen. xviii. 8); the suppression altogether of verbs connoting physical action ("God descended," Gen. xi. 5, becomes "God revealed Himself"); the recourse to "ḳodam" (before), to guard against the humanizing of the Godhead. The Memra ("Word"; "Logos") and the Shekinah, the divine effulgent indwelling of God (see Names of God), are not expedients to bridge the chasm between the extramundane and supramundane God and the world of things and man, as Weber claims; they are not hypostases which by being introduced into the theology of the rabbinical Synagogue do violence to the strenuous emphasis on God's unity by which it is characterized; but they owe their introduction into the phraseology of the Targumim and Midrashim respectively to this anxiety to find and use terms distinctively indicative of God's superlative sublimity and exaltedness, above and differentiated from any terrestrial or human similitude. These two terms prove, if anything, the apprehension on the part of the haggadists of God's relations to the world as the one supreme, all-directing, omnipresent, and all-pervading Essence, the all-abiding, everactive and activizing Principle, unfolding Himself in time and space.

Equally one-sided is the view according to which the rabbinical conception of God is rigidly and narrowly legal or nomistic. Weber (l.c.) and many after him have in connection with this even employed the term "Judaized conception of God." In proof of the contention, after Bartolocci, Eisenmenger, and Bodenschatz, rabbinical passages have been adduced in which God is represented as "studying the Law" ('Ab. Zarah 3b; Yalḳ., Isa. 316; or, more particularly, the section concerning the red heifer, Num. R. xix., parashah "Parah Adummah"); as "teaching children" (Yalḳ., Isa. l.c.); as "weeping over the destruction of the Temple" (Yer. Ḥag. i. 5b; Yalḳ., Lam. 1000); as "roaring like a lion" and "playing with the Leviathan" (Yalḳ., Isa. l.c.); as "no longer on His throne, but having only 'arba' ammot shel halakah,' the four ells of the halakah in the world for His own" (Ber. 11a); as "being under the ban, 'ḥerem'" (Pirḳe R. El. xxxviii.); as "being Levitically unclean, owing to His havingburied Moses" (Sanh. 39a); as "praying" (Yalḳ., Ps. 873; Ber. 7a); as "laying tefillin and wearing a ṭallit" (Ber. 6a; R. H. 17b); as "blowing the shofar"; as "having a vow released according to the provisions of the Law" (Num. xxx. 2 et seq.; Ex. R. xliii.; Lev. R. xix.); and as "rising before a hoary head" (Lev. R. xxxv.). Upon examination, all these passages are seen to be homiletical extravagances, academic exercises, and mere displays of skill and versatility in the art of interpreting Biblical texts ("Schulweisheit"), and therefore of no greater importance as reflecting the religious consciousness of either their authors or the people at large than other extravagances marked as such by the prefacing of "kibbe-yakol" (if it is permitted to say so; "sit venia verbo"), or "ilmale miḳra katub e efshar le-omro" ('Er. 22a; Yer. Ber. 9d; Lev. R. xxxiv.).

The Law of God.

The exaltation of the Torah is said to have been both the purpose and the instrument of creation: it is preexistent (Gen. R. i.), the "daughter" of Yhwh (Tan., Ki Tissa, 28; ib. Peḳude, 4), and its study even engages God (B. M. 86a). Differentiated from the "kabod" of God, it was given to man on earth, while the "splendor" (, also ) has its abode in the higher regions (Midr. Teh. to Ps. xc. 17, xci. 9). It is praised as the one panacea, healing the whole of man ('Er. 54a). This idea is not, as has been claimed by Weber and after him by others, evidence either of the nomistic character of the "Judaized" conception of God or of the absolute transcendence of God. In the first place, the term "Torah" in most of the passages adduced in proof does not connote the Law (Pentateuch). For it "religion" might be with greater exactness substituted (see Bacher, "Die Aelteste Terminologie der Jüdischen Schriftauslegung," s.v. ). In the second, if not a restatement of the doctrine of wisdom ("ḥokmah"; see above), these ecstasies concerning the Torah have a marked anti-Pauline character. The Torah is the "sam ḥayyim" (life-[salvation-] giving drug; Sifre, Deut. § 45; Ḳid. 30b; Yoma 72b; Lev. R. xvi.).

The following haggadic observations will illustrate the views formulated above:

God's omnipresence (with reference to Jer. xxiii. 24) is illustrated by two mirrors, the one convex, the other concave, magnifying and contracting respectively the image of the beholder (Gen. R. iv.). God's "mercy" will always assert itself if man repents (Pesiḳ. 164a). God's "justice" often intentionally refuses to take account of man's misdeeds (Gen. R. xxxvi.; Lev. R. v.). God requites men according to their own measure ("middah ke-neged middah"; Sanh. 90a, b; Tosef., Soṭah, iii.; Yer. Soṭah 17a, b); but the measure of good always exceeds that of evil and punishment ("middat ṭobah merubbah mi-middah pur'aniyyot"; Mek., Beshallaḥ, x. 49a). God forgives the sins of a whole community on account of the true repentance of even one man (Yoma 86b). "Ṭob" (the good) is God's main attribute (Yer. Ḥag. 77c; Eccl. R. vii. 8; Ruth R. iii. 16; comp. Matt. xix. 17). The anthropomorphic representation of God as suffering pain with men merely illustrates His goodness (Sanh. vi. 5). God fills the world; but the world does not fill or exhaust Him (Gen. R. lxviii.; Yalḳ., Hab. 563). God's "hand" is extended underneath the wings of the beings that carry the throne, to receive and take to Himself the sinners that return, and to save them from punishment (Pes. 119a). Man is in the clutches of anger; but God masters wrath (Gen. R. xlix.; Midr. Teh. to Ps. xciv. 1). God removes the "stumbling-block" (sin) (Pesiḳ. 165a; Yalḳ., Hosea, 532).

Talmudic Views.

God knows all. He is like an architect who, having built a palace, knows all the hiding-places therein, and from whom, therefore, the owner can not secrete anything (Gen. R. xxiv.). God is the architect of the world (Gen. R. i.); the "Torah" is the plan. God's signetring is truth, (the Alpha and Omega of the New Testament; Gen. R. lxxxi; Shab. 55a; Yoma 69b; Sanh. 64a; Yer. Tan. 18a; Deut. R. i.). All that confess "two God-heads" will ultimately come to grief (Deut. R. ii.). In a vast number of haggadic disquisitions on God, attention is called to the difference between the action of man and that of God, generally prefaced by "Come and see that 'shelo ke-middat basar wedam middat ha-Ḳodesh baruk hu'" (not like the motive and conduct of flesh and blood is God's manner). For instance, man selling a precious article will part with it in sorrow; not so God. He gave His Torah to Israel and rejoiced thereat (Ber. 5a). In others, again, God is likened to a king; and from this comparison conclusions are drawn (Gen. R. xxviii. and innumerable similar parables).

Sometimes attention is called to the difference between God and an earthly monarch. "When a king is praised, his ministers are praised with him, because they help him carry the burden of his government. Not so when God is praised. He alone is exalted, as He alone created the world" (Yalḳ., Deut. 835; Midr. Teh. to Ps. lxxxvi. 10; Gen. R. i. 3). God exalteth Himself above those that exalt themselves ("mitga'ah hu 'al ha-mitga'im; Ḥag. 13b; Mek., Beshallaḥ, 35b). In His hand is everything except the fear of Him (Ber. 33b; Meg. 25a; Niddah 16b).

Among the descriptive attributes, "mighty," "great," and "fearful" are mentioned. After Moses had formulated these (Deut. x. 17), and the last had been omitted by Jeremiah (xxxii. 18) and the first by Daniel (ix. 4), in view of the apparent victory of the heathen the "men of the Great Synagogue" (Neh. ix. 32) reinstituted the mention of all three, knowing that God's might consisted in showing indulgent long-suffering to the evil-minded, and that His "fearfulness" was demonstrated in Israel's wonderful survival. Hence their name "Great Synagogue" for having restored the crown of the divine attributes (Yoma 69b; Yer. Ber. 11c; Meg. 74c). These attributes may not be arbitrarily augmented; however many attributes man might use, he could not adequately express God's greatness (Ber. 33b; see Agnosticism); but man is bound to praise the Creator with his every breath (Gen. R. xiv.).

Stress is laid in the Talmudic theology on the resurrection of the dead. God is "meḥayyeh hametim," the one who restores the dead to life. The key to the resurrection is one of the three (or four) keys not given, save in very rare cases, to any one else, but is in the hands of God alone (Ta'an. 2a, b; Gen. R. lxxiii.; see Eschatology).

God and Israel.

Israel is God's people. This relation to Him can not be dissolved by Israel (Num. R. ii.). This is expressed in the definition of God's name as "ehyeh asher ehyeh." The individual has the liberty to profess God or not; but the community, if refractory, is coerced to acknowledge Him (Ex. R. iii. 14). As a king might fasten the key of his jewelcasketby a chain lest it be lost, so God linked His name with Israel lest the people should disappear (Yer. Ta'an. 65d). Israel's love for God, evidenced when in the desert, became a great treasure of divine grace, stored up for the days of Israel's troubles (Midr. Teh. to Ps. xxxvi. 11). Upon Israel's fidelity to God even the earth's fertility is dependent (Lev. R. xlv.). God's punishments are therefore very severe for disloyal Israel, though in His grace He provides the cure always before the blow (Meg. 13b). As a father prefers himself to discipline his son rather than to have another beat him, so God Himself is Israel's judge (Midr. Teh. to Ps. lxxviii. 41). God is toward Israel, however, like that king who, incensed at his son's conduct, swore to hurl a stone at him. In order not to break his oath, but being anxious not to destroy his child, he broke the stone into pieces, which one after another he threw at him (ib. to Ps. vi. 4; comp. Lev. R. xxxii.). Israel's disloyalty to God involves in its consequences even the other peoples (after Haggai i. 10; Midr. Teh. to Ps. iv. 8; comp. Matt. xv. 26; Mark vii. 27; Bacher, "Ag. Pal. Amor." i. 146).

The prayer-book of the Synagogue is the precipitate of the teachings concerning God held by the Rabbis. An analysis of its contents reveals that God was adored as the Creator, the Preserver of the world ("Yoẓer Or," the first benediction before the Shema'). He is the Great, the Mighty, the Fearful, the Highest, the Loving, the All-Sustaining, Reviving the Dead (in the Shemoneh 'Esreh), the King, Helper, Deliverer, the Support of the Weak, the Healer of the Sick. He sets free the captives, faithful even to them that sleep in the dust. He is holy. Knowledge and understanding are from Him, a manifestation of His grace ("Attah Ḥonen la-Adam"; Meg. 17b; the "Birkat Ḥokmah," Ber. 33). He forgives sin ("Ha-Marbeh li-Saloaḥ"). In His mercy He sends relief to those that suffer ("Birkat ha-Ḥolim"; 'Ab Zarah, 8a; comp. Meg. 17b). To Israel He continually shows His love and abundant grace ("Ahabah Rabbah" and "Ahabat 'Olam," the second benediction before the Shema'; Ber. 11b). Man's physical perfection is God's work ("Asher Yaẓar"; Ber. 60b). In the prayer "Modim" (the "Hoda'ah" [Meg. 18; Ber. 29, 34; Shab. 24; Soṭah 68b; Sifre, Deut. 949]; see Articles of Faith), God's immutability is accentuated, as well as His providential care of the life and soul of every man. He is "ha-ṭob," the good one whose mercies are boundless; while in the version given in the Siddur of Rab Amram and the Maḥzor of Rome the statement is added that "God has not abandoned Israel." God is also hailed as the maker of peace. The thought of God's unity, it is needless to remark, dominates throughout. The "'Alenu," with which, according to the Kol Bo (§§ 11 and 77; Ṭur Oraḥ Ḥayyim, § 133), every service must conclude, is a résumé of the implications of Israel's conception of God. He is the Lord of the universe; the Creator. Israel by His grace was called to know Him as the King of Kings, the Holy One. He alone is God. It concludes with the fervent prayer for the coming of the day when idolatry shall be no more, but God shall be acknowledged as the one and only God.E. G. H.

Motekallamin and Motazilites.

—In Philosophical Literature:

The rise of Karaism marks an epoch in Jewish philosophical thought concerning God. The ensuing controversies induced Jewish Rabbinite thinkers to turn their attention to the speculative problems involved in the Jewish conception of God. Mohammedan theology, under the influence of Greek philosophy, which came to it by way of Syria through the Christian Nestorians, had developed various schools, among them the Motekallamin or schoolmen, occupying a middle position between the orthodox believers in the dogmas of the Koran and the Free-thinkers or Philosophers. According to Shahrastani (ed. Cureton, German transl. by Haarbrücker), they were the defenders of the fundamental truths of the Koran. They did not appeal solely to the wording of the book, but formulated a rational system, that of the Kalam (hence their name, = Hebrew "Medabberim" = "loquentes"), in which through speculation the positions of the Koran were demonstrated as logically and intellectually necessary.

An offshoot from the Motekallamin were the Motazilites, who differed from the former in their doctrines concerning the divine attributes. Designating themselves as the proclaimers of the unity of God, they contended that the divine attributes were in no way to be regarded as essential; they thus emphasized God's absolute unity, which was regarded by them even as numerical. Over and against them the Ash'ariya urged deterministic views in opposition to the ascription of freedom to man, and pleaded for the reality of the divine attributes. These three schools were in so far orthodox as they all regarded the Koran as the source of truth and did not intend to abandon its fundamental authority. The Philosophers alone, though in externals observant of the religious ritual, ventured to take their stand on points other than those fixed by the text of the Koran; and they did not care whether their conclusions agreed with or differed from the positions of current theology.

Jewish philosophers in the Middle Ages (900-1300) display, on the whole, the methods and intentions of these orthodox Mohammedan schools. The same problems engage their interest. The attributes of God—His unity, His prescience, the freedom of human action—are the perplexities which they attempt to solve. That the teachings of the Bible and the theology of the Synagogue are true, they assume at the very outset. It is their ambition to show that these fundamental truths are rational, in conformity with the postulates of reason. Aristotelians for the most part, they virtually adopt the propositions of Al-Kindi, Alfarabi, and Al-Ghazali, as far as they are adherents of the Kalam; while those who are not resort to the Neoplatonic elements contained in Arabic Aristotelianism to sharpen their weapons. Ibn Sina (Avicenna) and Ibn Roshd (Averroes), also, must be remembered among the tutors of the Jewish Aristotelians.

Saadia.

The first of the Jewish writers to treat of the Jewish faith from the philosophical point of view was Saadia, the great anti-Karaite (see his controversies with Anan, Nahawandi, Ibn Sakawai, andBen Jeroham), in his famous work "Kitab al-Amanat wal-I'tiḳadat" (Hebrew, "Sefer Emunot we-De'ot"). He shows his familiarity with the positions of the Motazilites as well as with Greek philosophy and even with Christian theology. His purpose in composing the treatise was to set forth the harmony between the revealed truths of Judaism and the reason of man. In its controversial chapters he attacks the theology of Christianity with greater vehemence than that of Islam (see Geiger, "Wiss. Zeit. Jüd. Theol." i. 192). His philosophical point of view has rightly been characterized as eclectic, though strongly influenced by Aristotelianism. He prefaces his presentation of the God-concept with a discussion of the theory of human knowledge, which latter, according to him, proceeds from the perception of the grossly sensual elements common to men and animals. But when a man perceives an object, merely the accidents come to his vision.

"Sefer Emunot we-De'ot."

By comparison, however, he learns to know the quantity of bodies, thus forming the notion of space; while through the observation of motion he arrives at the perception of time ("Sefer Emunot we-De'ot," ed. Amsterdam, ii.). In this way man, through continued reflection, attains to ever finer and higher degrees of knowledge, discovering the relation of cause to effect. Many men, says Saadia, reject the existence of God on the ground that the knowledge of Him is too subtle and too abstract. But this is easily met by the assertion of the graduation of knowledge, which in its ascent always reaches finer degrees, and develops into the faculty of apprehending the less concrete and more abstract.

The final cause some philosophers have held to be material, an atom. But in going one degree higher, and in assuming the existence of a creator, man must know him as the highest; that is to say, God is the noblest but also the most subtile goal of speculative reflection. Many represent God as corporeal, because they do not push their ascending knowledge far enough beyond the corporeal to the abstract and incorporeal. The Creator being the originator of all bodies, He of necessity must be apprehended as supramundane, supercorporeal. Those that ascribe to God motion and rest, wrath and goodness, also apperceive Him as corporeal. The correct conception culminates in the representation of God as free from all accidents (ib.). If this conception be too abstract, and is to be replaced by one more material and concrete, reflection is forced to recede. The final cause must be, by the very postulates of reason, an abstract being. God-perception is thus the rise from the sensual to the supersensual and highest limits of thought.

But the Creator has revealed Himself to His Prophets as the One, the Living, the Almighty, the All-Wise, the Incomparable. It is the philosopher's part to investigate the reality of these attributes, and to justify them before the tribunal of reason (ib. ii. 24b, 25a). The unity of God includes His being absolutely one, as well as His uniqueness, and is necessarily postulated by the reflection that He is the Creator of all. For if He were not one. He would be many; and multiplicity is characteristic of corporeality. Therefore, as the highest thinking rejects His corporeality, He must be one. Again, human reason postulates one creator, since for creation a creator is indispensable; but, as one creator satisfies all the implications of this concept, reason has no call to assume two or more. If there were more than one creator, proof would have to be adduced for the existence of every one; but such proof could not be taken from creation, to account for which one creator suffices. That Scripture uses two names for God is merely due to linguistic idiomatic peculiarities, as "Jerubbaal" is also named "Gideon."

The Living God.

God is living because He, the Creator of the world, can not be thought of as without life (i.e., self-consciousness and knowledge of His deeds). His omnipotence is self-evident, since He is the Creator of the all: since creation is perfectly adjusted to its ends, God must be all-wise. These three attributes human reason discovers "at one stroke" ("pit'om," "beli maḥshabah," "mebi'ah aḥat"; ib. ii. 26a). Human speech, however, is so constituted as not to be able to express the three in one word. God's being is simple, not complex, every single attribute connoting Him in His entirety. Abstract and subtle though God is, He is not inactive. The illustration of this is the soul and its directive function over the body. Knowledge is still more subtile than the soul; and the same is again exemplified in the four elements. Water percolates through earth; light dominates water; the sphere of fire surrounds all other spheres and through its motion regulates the position of the planets in the universe. The motion of the spheres is caused by the command of the Creator, who, more subtile than any of the elements, is more powerful than aught else.

Still, Saadia concedes that no attribute may in strict construction be ascribed to God (ib. ii. 28b). God has also created the concept attribute; and created things can not belong to the essence of the Creator. Man may only predicate God's existence ("yeshut"). Biblical expressions are metaphorical. The errors concerning God are set forth in ten categories. Some have thought God to be a substance; some have ascribed to Him quantity; others quiddity (ποιόν in Aristotle); others have assigned to Him relations and dependency (πρός τι). The Eternal can not be in relation to or dependent upon anything created. He was before creation was. God is in no space (ποῦ in Aristotle). He is timeless (ποτέ). God can not be said to possess (ἔχειν): all is His. He lacks nothing. Possession, however, includes lack as its negative. God is incorporeal; therefore, He can not be apprehended as conditioned by status (κεῖσϑαι). Nor does God work (ποιεῖν). In the common sense of the term, work implies motion; and motion, in the subject, can not be in God. His will suffices to achieve His purposes; and, moreover, in work matter is an element, and place and time are factors—all considerations inapplicable to God.

Nor does God suffer (πάσχειν). Even God's seeing is not analogous to human sight, which is an effect by some exterior object. Saadia controverts trinitarianism more especially, as well as Dualism. Heis most emphatic in rejecting the corporeality of God, His incarnation, involved in the Christian doctrine. For his views concerning creation see Jew. Encyc. iv. 339, s.v. Creation.

But according to Saadia, man is the ultimate object of creation ("Emunot we-De'ot," iv. 45a). How is human freedom reconcilable with God's omnipotence and omniscience? That the will of man is free Saadia can not doubt. It is the doctrine of Scripture and of tradition, confirmed by human experience and postulated by reason. Without it how could God punish evil-doers? But if God does not will the evil, how may it exist and be found in this world of reality? All things terrestrial are adjusted with a view to man; they are by divine precept for the sake of man declared to be good or evil; and it is thus man that lends them their character. God's omniscience Saadia declares to be not necessarily causal. If man sins, God may know it beforehand; but He is not the cause of the sinful disposition or act.

Solomon ibn Gabirol.

Ibn Gabirol's theology is more profound than that of Saadia. In his "Meḳor Ḥayyim," he shows himself to be a follower of Plotinus, an adherent of the doctrine of emanation; yet, notwithstanding this pantheistic assumption, he recognizes the domination of a supreme omnipotent will, a free, personal God. He views the cognition of the final cause as the end and goal of all knowledge. "Being" includes: (1) form and matter; (2) primal substance, the cause (God); and (3) will, the mediator between the other two. Between God the Absolute and the world of phenomena, mediating agents are assumed. Like (God) can not communicate with unlike (the world); but mediating beings having something of both may bring them into relation. God is on the uppermost rung of the ladder of being; He is the beginning and cause of all. But the substance of the corporeal world is the lowest and last of all things created. The first is essentially different from the last; otherwise, the first might be the last, and vice versa. God is absolute unity; the corporeal world, absolute multiplicity and variety. Motion of the world is in time; and time is included in and is less than eternity. The Absolute is above eternity; it is infinitude. Hence there must be a mediating something between the supereternal and the subeternal. Man is the microcosm ("'olam ha-ḳaṭon"), a reflection of the macrocosm. The mind ("sekel") does not immediately connect itself with the body, but through the lower energies of the soul. In like manner in the macrocosm the highest simple substance may only join itself to the substance of the categories through the mediation of spiritual substances. Like only begets like. Hence, the first Creator could have produced simple substances only, not the sensual visible world which is totally unlike Him.

Between the First Cause and the world Gabirol places five mediators ("emẓa'ot"): (1) God's will ("ha-raẓon"); (2) general matter and form: (3)the universal mind ("sekel ha-kelali"); (4) the three world-souls ("nefashot"), vegetative, animal, and thinking souls; and (5) nature ("ha-ṭeba'"), the mover of the corporeal world.

The Divine Will.

The divine will has a considerable part in this system. It is the divine power which creates form, calls forth matter, and binds them together. It pervades all, from the highest to the lowest, just as the soul pervades the body ("Meḳor Ḥayyim," v. 60). God may be apprehended as will and as knowledge; the former operating in secret, invisibly; the latter realizing itself openly. From will emanates form, but from the oversubstance matter. Will, again, is nothing else than the totality comprehending all forms in indivisible unity. Matter without form is void of reality; it is non-existent; form is the element which confers existence on the non-existent. Matter without form is never actual ("be-fo'al"), but only potential ("be-koaḥ"). Form appears in the moment of creation, and the creative power is will; therefore, the will is the producer of form.

Upon this metaphysical corner-stone Ibn Gabirol bases his theological positions, which may be summed up as follows:

God is absolute unity. Form and matter are ideas in Him. Attributes, in strict construction, may not be predicated of Him; will and wisdom are identical with His being. Only through the things which have emanated from God may man learn and comprehend aught of God. Between God and the world is a chasm bridged only by mediatorial beings. The first of these is will or the creative word. It is the divine power activated and energized at a definite point of time. Creation is an act of the divine will. Through processes of successive emanations, the absolute One evolves multiplicity. Love and yearning for the first fountain whence issued this stream of widening emanations are in all beings the beginning of motion. They are yearning for divine perfection and omnipotence.

Ibn Gabirol may rightly be styled the Jewish speculative exponent of a system bordering on theosophy, certainly approaching obscurity and the mystic elimination of individuality in favor of an all-encompassing all-Divinity (pantheism). His system is, however, only a side-track from the main line of Jewish theological thought.

Baḥya ibn Paḳuda.

Baḥya ben Joseph ibn Paḳuda, in the treatise introducing his exposition of the "Duties of the Heart" ("Ḥobot ha-Lebabot," chapter "Ha-Yiḥud"), reverts in the main to the method of Saadia. According to Baḥya, only the prophet and the wise can serve God in truth. All others revere in God something utterly out of consonance with the exalted, sublime conception of God (ib. § 2). It is therefore every one's duty to arrive at a proper conception of God's unity by means of speculative reflection, and to be thus enabled to differentiate true unity ("eḥad ha-emet") from pseudo-unity ("eḥad ha-'ober"). In consequence Baḥya develops the following seven demonstrative arguments in support of God's unity:

(1)

The universe is like a pyramid sloping upward from a very broad base toward the apex; or it resembles an infinite series of numbers, of which the first is one, and the last comprises so many figures as to baffle all efforts to form a conception of it. The individual beings in the world are numerically infinite; when these individuals are classified in groups according to species, etc., the number of these groups becomes smaller. Thus by proceeding in his classifications to always more comprehensivegroups, man reduces the number ever more and more until he arrives at the number five, i.e., four elements plus motion. These, again, are really two only: matter and form. Their common principle, more comprehensive than either, must thus be smaller than two, i.e., One.

(2)

The harmony and concordance prevailing in creation necessitate the apprehension of the world as the work of one artist and creator.

(3)

Without a creator there could be no creation. Thus reason and logic compel the assumption of a creator; but to assume more than one creator is irrational and illogical.

Proofs of Unity.

(4)

If one believes in the existence of more than one God, one of two alternatives is suggested:

(
a)

One God was potent enough to create the all; why, then, other gods? They are superfluous.

(
b)

One God alone had not the power; then God was limited in power, and a being so limited is not God, but presupposes another being through which He Himself was called into existence.

(5)

The unity of God is involved in the very conception of Him. If there were more gods than one, this dilemma would be presented:

(
a)

These many gods are of one essence; then, according to the law of absolute identity, they are identical and therefore only one. Or

(
b)

these gods are differentiated by differences of essential qualities: then they are not gods; for God, to be God, must be absolute and simple (non-composite) being.

(6)

God connotes being without accidence, i.e., qualities not involved in being. Plurality is quantity, and, therefore, accidence. Hence plurality may not be predicated of God.

(7)

Inversely, the concept unity posits the unity of God. Unity, according to Euclid, is that through which a thing becomes numerically one. Unity, therefore, precedes the number one. Two gods would thus postulate before the number one the existence of unity. In all these demonstrations Baḥya follows the evidential argumentations of the Arabic schoolmen, the Motekallamin. In reference to God's attributes, Baḥya is of those who contend that attributes predicated of God connote in truth only negatives (excluding their opposites), never positives, (ib. § 10).

Judah ha-Levi.

This view is shared also by Judah ha-Levi, the author of the "Cuzari," probably the most popular exposition of the contents of Israel's religion, though, as Grätz rightly remarks ("Geschichte," vi. 157), little calculated to influence thinkers. He regards Creation as an act of divine will ("Cuzari," ii. 50). God is eternal; but the world is not. He ranges the divine attributes into three classes: (1) practical, (2) relative, and (3) negative. The practical are those predicated of God on the ground of deeds which, though not immediately, yet perhaps through the intervention of natural secondary causes, were wrought by God. God is in this sense recognized as gracious, full of compassion, jealous, and avenging.

Relative attributes are those that arise from the relations of man, the worshiper, to God, the one worshiped. God is holy, sublime, and to be praised; but though man in this wise expresses his thoughts concerning God, God's essence is not thereby described and is not taken out of His unity ("me-aḥaduto").

The third class seemingly express positive qualities, but in reality negative their contraries. God is living. This does not mean that He moves and feels, but that He is not unmoved or without life. Life and death belong to the corporeal world. God is beyond this distinction. This applies also to His unity; it excludes merely the notion that He is more than one. His unity, however, transcends the unity of human conceptual construction. Man's "one" is one of many, a part of a whole. In this sense God can not be called "One." Even so, in strict accuracy, God may not be termed "the first." He is without beginning. And this is also true of the designation of God as "the last." Anthropopathic expressions are used; but they result from the human ward impression of His works. "God's will" is a term connoting the cause of all lying beyond the sphere of the visible things. Concerning Ha-Levi's interpretation of the names of God see Names of God.

Controverts Fatalism.

In discussing the question of God's providential government and man's freedom Ha-Levi first controverts Fatalism; and he does this by showing that even the fatalist believes in possibilities. Human will, says he, is the secondary cause between man and the purpose to be accomplished. God is the First Cause: how then can there be room for human freedom? But will is a secondary cause, and is not under compulsion on the part of the first cause. The freedom of choice is thus that of man. God's omnipotence is not impugned thereby. Finally, all points back to God as the first cause of this freedom. In this freedom is involved God's omnipotence. Otherwise it might fail to be available. The knowledge of God is not a cause. God's prescience is not causal in reference to man's doings. God knows what man will do; still it is not He that causes man's action. To sum up his positions, Judah ha-Levi posits: (a) The existence of a first cause, i.e., a wise Creator always working under purpose, whose work is perfect. It is due to man's lack of understanding that this perfection is not seen by him in all things. (b) There are secondary causes, not independent, however, but instrumentalities. (c) God gave matter its adequate form. (d) There are degrees in creation. The sentient beings occupy higher positions than those without feelings. Man is the highest. Israel as the confessor of the one God outranks the polytheistic heathen. (e) Man is free to choose between good and evil, and is responsible for his choice.

Abraham ibn Daud.

Abraham ibn Daud, in his "Emunah Ramah," virtually traverses the same ground as his predecessors; but in reference to God's prescience he takes a very free attitude (ib. p. 96). He distinguishes two kinds of possibilities: (1) The subjective, where the uncertainty lies in the subject himself. This subjective possibility is not in God. (2) The objective, planned and willed by God Himself. While under the first is the ignorance of one livingin one place concerning the doings of those in another, under the second falls the possibility of man's being good or bad. God knows beforehand of this possibility, but not of the actual choice. The later author RaLBaG advances the same theory in his "Milḥamot ha-Shem" (iii. 2). Ibn Daud also argues against the ascription of positive attributes to God ("Emunah Ramah," ii. 3).

Moses ben Maimon's "Moreh Nebukim" ("Dalalat al-Ḥa'irin") is the most important contribution to Jewish philosophical thought on God. According to him, philosophy recognizes the existence and perfection of God. God's existence is proved by the world, the effect whence he draws the inference of God's existence, the cause. The whole universe is only one individual, the parts of which are interdependent. The sublunar world is dependent upon the forces proceeding from the spheres, so that the universe is a macrocosm ("Moreh," ii. 1), and thus the effect of one cause.

Maimonides.

Two gods or causes can not be assumed, for they would have to be distinct in their community: but God is absolute; therefore He can not be composite. The corporeal alone is numerical. God as incorporeal can not be multiple ("Yad," Yesode ha-Torah, i. 7). But may God be said to be one? Unity is accidence, as is multiplicity. "God is one" connotes a negative, i.e., God is not many ("Moreh," i. 57). Of God it is possible only to say that He is, but not what He is (ib.; "hayuto bi-lebad lo mahuto"; in Arabic "anniyyah" = ὅτι ἔστι [quoddiàas]). All attributes have a negative implication, even existence. God's knowledge is absolute (ib. iii. 19). God's knowledge is never new knowledge. There is nothing that He does not know. In His knowledge He comprehends all, even infinitude (ib. iii. 20). God's knowledge is not analogous to man's. Evil is merely negation or privation (ib. iii. 8). God is not its author; for God sends only the positive. All that is, save God, is only of possible existence; but God is the necessarily existent (ib. i. 57). In Him there is no distinction between essence ("'eẓem") and existence ("ha-meẓi'ut"), which distinction is in all other existing things. For this reason God is incorporeal, one, exalted above space and time, and most perfect (ib. ii., Preface, 18, 21, 23, 24).

By the successors of Maimonides, Albo, Ralbag (Levi ben Gershon), and Crescas, no important modifications were introduced. Albo contends that only God may be designated as one, even numerical oneness being not exclusive connotation of unity ("'Iḳḳarim," ii. 9, 10; comp. Ibn Ẓaddiḳ, "'Olam Ḳaṭon," p. 49: "eḥad ha-mispar eno ka-eḥad ha-elahut"). He, too, emphasizes God's incorporeality, unity, timelessness, perfection, etc. ("'Iḳḳarim," ii. 6).

Crescas pleads for the recognition of positive attributes in God. He concedes that the unity of God can not be demonstrated by speculation, but that it rests on the "Shema'" alone. It may be noticed that Aaron ben Elijah ("'Eẓ ha-Ḥayyim," ch. lxxi.) also argues in favor of positive attributes, though he regards them in the light of homonyms.

The precipitate of these philosophical speculations may be said to have been the creed of Maimonides (see Articles of Faith). It confesses that God is the Creator, Governor of all. He alone "does, has been and will be doing." God is One; but His unity has no analogy. He alone is God, who was, is, and will be. He is incorporeal. In corporeal things there is no similitude to Him. He is the first and the last. Stress is also laid on the thought that none shares divinity with Him. This creed is virtually contained in the Adon 'Olam and the Yigdal.

The cabalists (see Cabala) were not so careful as Maimonides and others to refrain from anthropomorphic and anthropopathic extravagances and ascriptions (see Shi'ur Ḳomah). Nevertheless their efforts to make of the incorporeality of God a dogma met with opposition in orthodox circles. Against Maimonides ("Yad," Teshubah, iii. 7), denying to the believers in God's corporeality a share in the world to come, Abraham ben David of Posquières raised a fervent protest. Moses Taku is another protestant ("Oẓar Neḥmad," iii. 25; comp. Abraham Maimuni, "Milḥamot," p. 25).

Bibliography: Schmiedl, Studien über Jüdische Religionsphilosophie, Vienna, 1869;
P. J. Muller, De Godsleer der Middeleeuwsche Joden, Groningen, 1898;
D. Kaufmann, Attributenlehre, Leipsic, 1880;
Guttmann, Die Religionsphilosophie des Saadia;
idem, Die Religionsphilosophie Abraham Ibn Dauds;
M. Joël, Zur Gesch. der Jüdischen Religionsphilosophie, Leipsic, 1872;
Munk, Mélanges.E. G. H.

—The Modern View:

On the whole, the modern Jewish view reproduces that of the Biblical books, save that the anthropomorphic and anthropopathic terminology is recognized as due to the insufficiency of human language to express the super-human. The influence of modern philosophers (Kant and Hegel) upon some sections of Jewish thought has been considerable. The intellectual elements in the so-called demonstrations of God's existence and the weakness of the argument have been fully recognized. The Maimonidean position, that man can not know God in Himself (), has in consequence been strengthened (see Agnosticism). The human heart (the practical reason in the Kantian sense) is the first source of knowledge of God (see Samuel Hirsch, "Catechismus," s.v. "Die Lehre"). The experience of man and the history of Israel bear witness to God's existence, who is apprehended by man as the Living, Personal, Eternal, All-Sustaining, the Source of all life, the Creator and Governor of the universe, the Father of all, the Righteous Judge, in His mercy forgiving sins, embracing all in His love. He is both transcendental and immanent. Every human soul shares to a certain degree in the essence of the divine. In thus positing the divinity of the human soul, Judaism bridges the chasm between the transcendental and the immanent elements of its conception of God. Pantheism is rejected as one-sided; and so is the view, falsely imputed to Judaism, which has found its expression in the absolute God of Islam.

The implications of the Jewish God-idea may be described as "pan-monotheism," or "ethical monotheism." In this conception of God, Israel is called to the duty, which confers no prerogatives not also within the reach of others, of illustrating in life the godliness of the truly human, through its own"holiness"; and of leading men to the knowledge of the one eternal, holy God (see Deism; Evolution).

Bibliography: Samuel Hirsch, Die Religionsphilosophie der Juden, Leipsic, 1843;
Formstecher, Die Religion des Geistes;


see also Catechism;
Rülf, Der Einheitsgedanke.E. G. H.

—Critical View:

Biblical historiography presents the theory that God revealed Himself successively to Adam, Noah, Abraham and his descendants, and finally to Moses. Monotheism was thus made known to the human race in general and to Israel in particular from the very beginning. Not ignorance but perverseness led to the recognition of other gods, necessitating the sending of the Prophets to reemphasize the teachings of Moses and the facts of the earlier revelation. Contrary to this view, the modern critical school regards monotheism as the final outcome of a long process of religious evolution, basing its hypothesis upon certain data discovered in the Biblical books as well as upon the analogy presented by Israel's historical development to that of other Semitic groups, notably, in certain stages thereof, of the Arabs (Wellhausen, "Skizzen und Vorarbeiten," iii. 164; Nöldeke, in "Z. D. M. G." 1887, p. 719).

Polytheistic Leanings of the Semites.

The primitive religion of Israel and the God-concept therein attained reflected the common primitive Semitic religious ideas, which, though modified in Biblical times, and even largely eliminated, have left their traces in the theological doctrines of the Israel of later days. Renan's theory, formulated in his "Precis et Système Comparé des Langues Semitiques" (1859), ascribing to the Semites a monotheistic instinct, has been abandoned because it was found to be in conflict with facts. As far as epigraphic material, traditions, and folk-lore throw light on the question, the Semites are shown to be of polytheistic leanings. Astral in character, primitive Semitic religion deified the sun, the moon, and the other heavenly bodies. The storm-clouds, the thunder-storms, and the forces of nature making for fertility or the reverse were viewed as deities. As long as the Semites were shepherds, the sun and the other celestial phenomena connected with the day were regarded as malevolent and destructive; while the moon and stars, which lit up the night—the time when the grass of the pasture was revived—were looked upon as benevolent. In the conception of Yhwh found in the poetry of the Bible, speaking the language of former mythology and theology, the element is still dominant which, associating Him with the devastating cloud or the withering, consuming fire, virtually accentuates His destructive, fearful nature (Wellhausen, l.c. iii. 77, 170; Baethgen, "Beiträge zur Semitischen Religionsgeschichte," p. 9, Berlin, 1888; Smend, "Lehrbuch der Alttestamentlichen Religionsgeschichte," p. 19, Leipsic, 1893).

The intense tribal consciousness of the Semites, however, wielded from a very early period a decisive influence in the direction of associating with each tribe, sept, or clan a definite god, which the tribe or clan recognized as its own, to the exclusion of others. For the tribe thought itself descended from its god, which it met and entertained at the sacrificial meal. With this god it maintained the blood covenant. Spencer's theory, that ancestral animism is the first link in the chain of religious evolution, can not be supported by the data of Semitic religions. Ancestral animism as in vogue among the Semites, and the "cult of the dead" (see Witch of Endor) in Israel point rather to individual private conception than to a tribal institution. In the development of the Israelitish God-idea it was not a determining factor (Goldziher, "Le Culte des Ancêtres et des Morts chez les Arabes," in "Revue de l'Histoire des Religions," x. 332; Oort, in "Theologisch Tijdschrift," 1881, p. 350; Stade, "Geschichte des Volkes Israel," i. 387).

Characteristic, however, of the Semitic religions is the designation of the tribal or clan deity as "adon" (lord), "melek" (king), "ba'al" (owner, fructifier). The meaning of "el," which is the common Semitic term, is not certain. It has been held to connote strength (in which case God would = "the strong"), leadership ("the first"), and brilliancy (Sprenger, in his "Das Leben und die Lehre des Mohammad," in which God ="sun"). It has also been connected with "elah," the sacred tree (Ed. Meyer, in Roscher's "Ausführliches Lexikon der Griechischen und Römischen Mythologie," s.v. "El"; and Smend, l.c. p. 26, note 1). Equally puzzling is the use of the plural "Elohim" in Hebrew ( in Phenician; comp. Ethiopic "amlak"). The interpretation that it is a "pluralis majestatis" with the value of an abstract idea ("the Godhead"), assumes too high a degree of grammatical and philosophical reflection and intention to be applicable to primitive conditions. Traces of an original polytheism might be embodied in it, were it not for the fact that the religion of Israel is the outgrowth of tribal and national monolatry rather than of polytheism.

Tribal Gods.

Each tribe in Israel had its tribal god (see, for instance, Dan; Gad; Asher). Nevertheless from a very remote period these tribes recognized their affinity to one another by the fact that above their own tribal god they acknowledged allegiance to Yhwh. This Yhwh was the Lord, the Master, the Ruler. His will was regarded as supreme. He revealed Himself in fire or lightning.

In Ex. vi. 2 Yhwh is identified with El-Shaddai, the god of the Patriarchs. What the latter name means is still in doubt (see Nöldeke in "Z. D. M. G." 1886, p. 735; 1888, p. 480). Modern authorities have argued from the statement in Exodus that Yhwh was not known among the Hebrews before Moses, and have therefore insisted that the name at least, if not the god, was of foreign origin. Delitzsch's alleged discovery of the name "Yhwh" on Babylonian tablets has yet to be verified. Moses is held to have identified a Midianite-Kenite deity with the patriarchal El-Shaddai. However this may have been, the fact remains that from the time of the Exodus onward Israel regarded itself as the people of Yhwh, whose seat was Sinai, where he manifested Himself amidst thunder and lightning in His unapproachable majesty, and whence He went forth to aid His people (Judges v. 4; Deut. xxxiii. 2). Itwas Yhwh who had brought judgment on the gods of Egypt, and by this act of His superior power had renewed the covenant relation which the fathers of old had maintained with Him.

From the very outset the character of Yhwh must have been of an order conducive to the subsequent development of monotheistic and ethical connotations associated with the name and the idea. In this connection it is noteworthy that the notion of sex, so pernicious in other Semitic cults, was from the outset inoperative in the worship of Yhwh. As Israel's God, He could not but be jealous and intolerant of other gods beside Him, to whom Israel would pay honor and render homage. Enthroned in the midst of fire, He was unapproachable ("ḳodesh"); the sacrificial elements in His cult were of a correspondingly simple, pastoral nature. The jealousy of Yhwh was germinal of His unity; and the simplicity and austerity of His original desert worship form the basis of the moralization of the later theology.

Change of Social Conditions.

With the invasion of the land, Israel changed from a pastoral into an agricultural people. The shepherd cult of the desert god came into contact and conflict with the agricultural deities and cults of the Canaanites. Yhwh was partly worshiped under Canaanitish forms, and partly replaced by the Canaanitish deities (Baalim, etc.). But Yhwh would not relinquish His claim on Israel. He remained the judge and lawgiver and ruler and king of the people He had brought out from Egypt. The Nazarites and the Prophets arose in Israel, emphasizing by their life and habits as well as by their enthusiastic and indignant protest the contrast of Israel with the peoples of the land, and of its religion with theirs (comp. the Yhwh of Elijah; He is "Ha-Elohim"). With Canaanitish cults were connected immoralities as well as social injustice. By contrast with these the moral nature of Yhwh came to be accentuated.

During the first centuries of Israel's occupation of Palestine the stress in religious life was laid on Israel's fidelity to Yhwh, who was Israel's only God, and whose service was to be different from that offered unto the Baalim. The question of God's unity was not in the center of dispute. Yhwh was Israel's only God. Other peoples might have other gods, but Israel's God had always shown His superiority over these. Nor was umbrage taken at this time at the representations of Yhwh by figures, though simplicity still remained the dominant note in His cult. A mere stone or rock served for an altar (Judges vi. 20, xiii. 10; I Sam. vi. 14); and natural pillars (holy trees," maẓebot") were more frequent than artificial ones (see Smend, l.c. pp. 40 et seq.). The Ephod was perhaps the only original oracular implement of the Yhwh cult. Teraphim belonged apparently to domestic worship, and were tolerated under the ascendency of the Yhwh national religion. "Massekah" was forbidden (Ex. xxxiv. 17), but not "pesel"; hence idols seem not to have been objected to so long as Yhwh's exclusive supremacy was not called into doubt. The Ark was regarded as the visible assurance of Yhwh's presence among His people. Human sacrifices, affected in the Canaanitish Moloch cult, were especially abhorred; and the lascivious rites, drunkenness, and unchastity demanded by the Baalim and their consorts were declared to be abominations in the sight of Yhwh.

The God of the Prophets.

These conceptions of God, which, by comparison with those entertained by other peoples, were of an exalted character, even in these early centuries, were enlarged, deepened, refined, and spiritualized by the Prophets in proportion as historical events, both internal and external, induced a widening of their mental horizon and a deepening of their moral perceptions. First among these is Amos. He speaks as the messenger of the God who rules all nations, but who, having known Israel alone among them, will punish His people all the more severely. Assyria will accomplish God's primitive purpose. In Amos' theology the first step is taken beyond national henotheism. Monotheism begins through him to find its vocabulary. This God, who will punish Israel as He does the other nations, can not condone social injustice or religious (sexual) degradation (Amos iv.). The ethical implications of Yhwh's religion are thus placed in the foreground. Hosea introduces the thought of love as the cardinal feature in the relations of Israel and God. He spiritualizes the function of Israel as the exponent of divine purposes. Yhwh punishes; but His love is bound ultimately to awaken a responsive love by which infidelity will be eliminated and overcome.

Isaiah lays stress on God's holiness: the "ḳodesh," unapproachable God, is now "ḳadosh," holy (see Baudissin, "Der Begriff der Heiligkeit im Alten Testament," in "Studien zur Semitischen Religionsgesch."). It is Israel's duty as God's people to be cleansed from sin by eschewing evil and by learning to do good. Only by striving after this, and not by playing at diplomacy, can the "wrath of God" be stayed and Jerusalem be saved. The remnant indeed will survive. Isaiah's conception of God thus again marks an advance beyond that of his predecessors. God will ultimately rule as the arbiter among the nations. Peace will be established, and beasts as well as men will cease to shed blood.

Jeremiah and his contemporaries, however, draw near the summit of monotheistic interpretations of the Divine. The cultus is centralized; Deuteronomic humanitarianism is recognized as the kernel of the God-idea. Israel and Palestine are kept apart from the rest of the world. Yhwh ceases to be localized. Much greater emphasis than was insisted on even by Isaiah is now laid on the moral as distinct from the sacrificial involutions of the God-idea.

The prophets of the Exile continue to clarify the God-concept of Israel. For them God is One; He is Universal. He is Creator of the All. He can not be represented by image. The broken heart is His abiding-place. Weak Israel is His servant ("'ebed"). He desires the return of the sinner. His intentions come to pass, though man's thoughts can not grasp them.

Post-Exilic Conception.

After the Exile a double tendency in the conceptions of God is easily established. First, He is Israel's Lawgiver; Israel shall be holy. Secondly,He is all mankind's Father. In the Psalms the latter note predominates. Though the post-exilic congregation is under the domination of national sacerdotalism (represented by P), in the Wisdom literature the universal and ethical implications of Israel's God-belief came to the forefront. In the later books of the Biblical canon the effort is clearly traceable to remove from God all human attributes and passions (see Anthropomorphism and Anthropopathism). The critical school admits in the final result what the traditional view assumes as the starting-point. The God whom Israel, through the events of its history, under the teachings of its men of genius, the Prophets, finally learned to proclaim, is One, the Ruler and Creator of all, the Judge who loveth righteousness and hateth iniquity, whose witness Israel is, whose true service is love and justice, whose purposes come and have come to pass.

Bibliography: Kuenen, The Religion of Israel (Eng. transl. of Godsdienst van Israel, Haarlem, 1869-70);
idem, National Religions and Universal Religion (Hibbert Lectures, 1882);
Knappert, The Religion of Israel;
Duhm, Die Theologie der Propheten, Bonn, 1875;
Wilhelm Vatke, Die Religion des A. T. Berlin, 1835;
Ewald, Die Lehre der Bibel von Gott, Göttingen, 1871-76;
Wellhausen, Prolegomenazur Gesch. Israels, 3d ed., 1886;
idem, Skizzen und Vorarbeiten, i.-vi., 1882-1903;
Baudissin, Studien zur Semitischen Religionsgesch. Leipsic, 1876, 1878;
W. Robertson Smith, Rel. of Sem. Edinburgh, 1885;
Ed. König, Grundprobleme der Alttest. Religionsgesch. 1885;
idem, Der Offenbarungsbegriff, etc.;
Friedrich Baethgen, Beiträge zur Semit. Religionsgesch. Berlin, 1888;
Smend, Lehrbuch der Alttestamentlichen Religionsgesch. 1893;
Budde, Vorlesungen über die Vorexilische Religion Israels, 1901;
Kayser-Dillmann, Alt. Test. Theologie.E. G. H.

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