There has now passed under our observation the whole series of designations applied to Jesus in the Synoptic Gospels. They are somewhat numerous, but all to much the same effect: and they unite to suggest a unitary conception of His person of the highest exaltation. Our Lord is called in these Gospels, ‘ Jesus,1 Jesus of Nazareth,¹ the Nazarene,’2 ‘ Jesus the Galilean,³ ‘ Jesus the prophet from Nazareth of Galilee,³ Jesus surnamed Christ.’³ Jesus Christ,”² Jesus the Son of David,¹ Jesus King of the Jews,¹ ‘ Jesus, Master,⁴ ‘ Jesus the Son of the Most High God.⁵ He is addressed respectfully, passing up into reverently, by the titles of Rabbi,’² Rabboni,’⁶ Teacher¹ ( d:ddorale), ‘ Master ⁴ (émeordra), Lord (κύριε):¹ and He is spoken of by Himself or others by the corresponding appellatives, ‘ Teacher,”¹ Guide ( καθηγητής),³ ‘ House-Master (oéxodzomoryc),⁷ ‘ Lord.¹ obviously with the highest implications these appellatives are + capable of bearing. More specifically He is described as to His office and person by a long series of recog- nized Messianic titles: 7 the Coming One,⁷ the Prophet,¹ the Christ,¹ the King of the Jews,¹ ‘ the King of Israel,² ‘ the King,⁷ ‘ the Son of David,¹ the
Son of Abraham,³ God’s Chosen One,’⁴ the Holy One of God,⁶ ‘ the Servant (παῖς) of God,³ the Son of God,¹ the Son of the Blessed,⁶ the Son of the Most High,⁴ ‘ the Son of the Most High God,⁵ the Son of the Living God,”³ God’s Son,¹ the Son,¹ the Son of Man,¹ the Saviour who is Christ the Lord,⁴ Immanuel,³ ‘ the Shepherd who is God’s Fellow,² ‘ the Bridegroom,¹ the Beloved.¹
We have spoken of these designations as recognized Messianic titles. They emerge as such on the pages of the Gospel narrative. But it is nata, ural that their actus] use 28 suchiby the Jews contemporary with our Lord admits of illustration from the very scanty remains of their literature which has come down to us in very varying measures. Suffice it to say that those of them which are most frequently found in the Gospel narrative and which seem most significant for it, already occur in the narrow compass of the Book of Enoch, the Apocalypse of Baruch, 4 Esra, and the Psalms of Solomon: the Christ,” ‘ the Son of David,” the Chosen One of God,’ ‘ the Son of God,’ the Son of Man.”3 The matter is of no great importance and requires to be noted chiefly that the richness of the Messianic vocabulary capable. of being intelligibly employed in Jesus’ day may be appreciated, and that therefore the varying designations assigned to Jesus in the Gospels may occasion no surprise.
This rich body of designations is rooted, in all its items, not in current Messianic speculation, but in Old Testament prophecy; and is a witness not so much to the Messianic thought of Jesus’ day as to the great variety of the modes of representation adopted in Old Testament revelation to prepare the people of God for His future intervention for their redemption. The focusing of all these lines of prediction in Jesus, and their satisfaction in His manifestation, is one of the phenomena which marked His appearance, and differentiates the movement inaugurated by Him from all other Messianic movements in Judaism—whether movements of thought merely or of action. He came forward and was recognized as the embodiment of the whole Messianic preformation of the Old Testament, moderating the current one-sided exaggeration of some elements of it and emphasizing other elements of it which had been neglected, transfiguring elements of it which had been crassly apprehended and compacting the whole into a unitary fulfillment unimagined before His appearance. What it particularly behooves us to take note of at the moment is the emphasis with which Jesus is presented, by means of this long series of designations, as the Messiah, and the exalted conception of the Messianic dignity which accompanies this emphatic attribution of it to Him. Nothing is left unsaid which could be said in simple and straightforward narratives to make it clear to the reader that Jesus is the Messiah: and nothing is lacking in what is said to make it clear that this Messiah is more than a human, even a divine, person.
It belongs to the emphasis which is placed on His Messianic character that no room is left for that development of Jesus’ Messianic consciousness which it has been the chief ¹desire of many modern students of His career to trace. Nor, indeed, is room left for justifiable lagging of recognition of His Messiahship on the part of His followers or of His contemporaries. He is exhibited as already conscious of His unique relation to God as His Son, in the sole incident that is recorded of His early youth (Lk 2⁴⁹). He is represented as beginning His ministry under the profound impression necessarily made upon Him by His solemn designation as the Messiah by John the Baptist (Mt 3¹⁴), confirmed as this was by a voice from the opened heavens proclaiming Him God’s Son, His Beloved, in whom God was well pleased (Mt 3¹⁷, Mk 1¹¹, Lk 3²²), and by His terrible experience of testing by Satan as the Son of God (Mt 4³,⁶, Lk 4³,⁹), and His succoring by the angels (Mk 1¹³). Accordingly He is represented as opening His ministry by publicly applying to Himself the prophecy of Isaiah 61¹ with its enumeration of the works of the Messiah (Lk 4¹⁷,¹⁸3) and as entering at once upon the performance of those works, not merely accepting the ascriptions of Messianic dignity to Him which they elicited (Lk 5⁸ 4³⁴,⁴¹, Mk 1²⁴,³⁴, Mt 8¹⁷, etc.), but Himself appealing to them as the criteria of His Messiahship (Mt 11³, Lk 7¹⁹). He is represented as, under the impulse of His sense of His mission (Mk 1³⁸, Lk 4⁴³), preaching throughout the land in accents of authority (Mk 1²², Lk 4³²), asserting His power over the religious ordinances of the people (Mk 2²⁸, Mt 125⁸ Lk 6⁵), and exercising