According to the traditional view, the title 'Son of Alan' was the Christ's self-chosen desig nation of himself, and with two exceptions was applied to him by his own lips. To Jewish ears it is thought to have been a clear assertion of Slessiahship. Some suppose that in consequence of the prophecy of Daniel it became a popular and official title of the Messiah. In one part of the Book of Enoch (q.v.), which, however, is of uncertain date. the judgment day of Alessiali, identified with Daniel's 'Son of Alan,' stands in the forefront of the eschatological picture. ,Jesus, when standing at the tribunal of Caiaphas. said to his judges: "Hereafter shall ye see the son of man sitting at the right hand of power and com ing in the clouds of heaven" ( _Matt. xxvi. 64), and lie uttered a similar prediction in his prophecy over Jerusalem (Matt. xxiv. 30). Those who accept the genuineness of these sayings think that it was no merely generic title. but the constant setting forth of his Messianic claims and that, coupled as it was with his repeated assertions of his divine origin, it brought down upon him the wrath of the scribes and Pharisees. The San hedrin, the highest court of Jewry, condemned him because he claimed divinity. "We have a law- and by our law he ought to die because lie made himself the son of God." said the mem bers of this court to the Roman Governor. "He bath spoken blasphemy," cried the High Priest (Matt. xxvi, 65). This was the culmination of the Nazarene's offense against the current concep tions of Messialiship. "They all condemned him to be guilty of death." But having lost the power of capital punishment, in their subjection to the Roman Government, the Jews had to go to Pontius Pilate to attain their ends, and Jesus was crucified by order of the Governor.
It should also be stated that between the criti cal estimate first given and the traditional inter pretation just outlined many scholars have as sumed a mediating position, rejecting, the bulk of supposed Messianic prophecy and the accuracy of the New Testament interpretation of it. while still maintaining that Jesus regarded himself as the Messiah and gave to the Alessi:01,Np as to the kingdom a more spiritual significance.
in A.D. 37 a Samaritan appeared as a leader of a rebellion in Tirathana. Precisely what claims he made for himself is not clear from the account of .Iosephus (.1nt. xviii. 85 sqq.). There are many indications that after this time a more transcendental character was given to the Messianic conception, not only among the Jews who looked forward to a return of Jesus as the Messiah, hut also in other circles of Jewry. Theudas, who announced himself as the Messiah in the reigns of Claudius, did not depend upon military strength or political diplomacy, hut looked for a miraculous establishment by of the Kingdom of Israel in place of the !Iowan Empire. Ile was beheaded by Cuspius Fadus in A 46 (Josephus, xx. 97 sqq.). The Egyptian (c.58 A.D.) mentioned by Jo sephus (int. xx. 169 sqq.) probably only claimed to be what the historian calls hint—a prophet. But Alen:thou, son of Judah, the Galilean. who appeared during the siege of Jerusalem, led the attack upon the Doman garrison clothed in royal garments. and fell a victim of his Messianic pride and arbitrariness. An apocalyptic frag ment. of Jewish origin, preserved in Revelation xi. 1, 2, xii., sets forth figuratively how the
Slessiali has already been born, but is bidden secure against Roman persecution, to appear in due time. This idea that the _Messiah has been horn in the Jewish community, but has already as a child been translated, is similar to the con ception found in the Babylonian Talmud (San hedrin, 9$ h), where the Messiah is a deceased descendant of David who rises from the dead to accomplish the delivery of Israel. Both of these notions were due to the conviction that God would provide a genuine son of David. A trans lated hero would naturally return on the clouds of heaven. Thus in the .1 pocolypsc of Baruch, after the fall of Jerusaleni, the Messiah is 'revealed' (xxix. 3; xxxix. 7), and 'returns in glory' (xxx. 1) to rule until the world of cor ruption is at all cud (xl. 3), sparing some and putting others to death (lxxii. 2-6). In the .1pocolypse of E,:ra, in A.D. 97, the Ales slab is to be revealed (hiring four hundred years and then die together with all men. whereupon the present age will end and a new• world begin, after days of silence, with the resurrection of the dead and the appearance of the Most high on the judgment seat vii. 28 stn.). The woman that brings forth a child• as in Revelation xii., loses him when she is about to give him a wife and tlees into the wilderness (ix. 43 sqq.). The lion rebuking the eagle is said to he the Mes siah who hos been preserved for the end from the seed of David (xii. 3 sqq.). Finally the nun like or angelic being that rises from the sea and flies with the duty's of heaven. destroying an army with the fire proceeding from his mouth.
is declared to he the Nlessiali (xiii.)• In spite of the marked influenee of Jewish-Christian thought. the emphasis is strongly put upon the assertion that God is not to judge llis creation through any one (v. vi. 6). it is possible, however. that even this step was taken by the Jewish interpolator of the hortatory addresses of Enoch (On t he composite claractra• ?.( I section of the hook, consult Schmidt. article "Enoch," in the .1, wish rn coclopadia.) In original vision God alone is the hidge. and there is no Messiah; but the book seems to have been annotated and expanded bv a writer who looked forward to the revelation of a ehosen instrument. not merely for the pun ishment of the nations, but for the judgment of the world—a man destined to sit upon a glorious throne to judge angels and men (xlv. 3, 4; xlvi.; le. 4; 8, 9). This picture has finally been retouched by a Christian hand. The Aramaic original is lost, but even the Ethiopic translation renders it possible to distinguish be tween the early passages, where a bur nasha in the generic sense of 'man' occurred. and the places where the Christian title has been subse quently introduced. The Jewish expansion prob ably took place in the reign of Domitian. After this a reaction against the transcendental Mes sianic idea set in. This was developed in Chris tianity as it separated itself from Judaism. The Messianic idea became fused with metaphysical speculation of Greek origin to such all extent that o xptar6s, 'the anointed one,' the etymolog ical equivalent of 'the Messiah,' finally conveyed a meaning absolutely foreign to the original con cept ion.