It was all most fitting. The question of unbelief had struck the Priest dumb, for most truly
unbelief cannot speak; and the answer of faith restored to him speech, for most truly does
faith loosen the tongue. The first evidence of his dumbness had been, that his tongue
refused to speak the benediction to the people; and the first evidence of his restored
power was, that he spoke the benediction of God in a rapturous burst of praise and
thanksgiving. The sign of the unbelieving Priest standing before the awe-struck people,
vainly essaying to make himself understood by signs, was most fitting; most fitting also
that, when 'they made signs' to him, the believing father should burst in their hearing into
a prophetic hymn.
But far and wide, as these marvellous tidings spread throughout the hill-country of
Judæa, fear fell on all - the fear also of a nameless hope. The silence of a long-clouded
day had been broken, and the light which had suddenly riven its gloom, laid itself on their
hearts in expectancy: 'What then shall this Child be? For the Hand of the Lord also was
with Him!'76
76. The insertion of γαρ seems critically established, and gives the fuller meaning.
Book II
FROM THE MANGER IN BETHLEHEM TO THE BAPTISM IN JORDAN
Chapter 5
WHAT MESSIAH DID THE JEWS EXPECT?
It were an extremely narrow, and, indeed, false view, to regard the difference between
Judaism and Christianity as confined to the question of the fulfillment of certain
prophecies in Jesus of Nazareth. These predictions could only outline individual features
in the Person and history of the Messiah. It is not thus that a likeness is recognised, but
rather by the combination of the various features into a unity, and by the expression
which gives it meaning. So far as we can gather from the Gospel narratives, no objection
was ever taken to the fulfillment of individual prophecies in Jesus. But the general
conception which the Rabbis had formed of the Messiah, differed totally from what was
presented by the Prophet of Nazareth. Thus, what is the fundamental divergence between
the two may be said to have existed long before the events which finally divided them. It
is the combination of letters which constitute words, and the same letters may be
combined into different words. Similarly, both Rabbinism and - what, by anticipation, we
designate - Christianity might regard the same predictions as Messianic, and look for