82 LT.-COL. MOLOXY, O.B.E., LATE R.E., OX PREDICTIONS AND 



continues (Chapter xi), the spirit of wisdom and understanding, 

 the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the 

 fear of the Lord." Surely a good foundation for a teacher. 



Isa. ix, 6 : " For imto 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, Counsellor." Now a counsellor is a 

 teacher of a high order, for whereas most men can be trained to 

 teach one subject well, men only go for counsel to those on whose 

 all-round judgment they can thoroughly rely. 



Isa. Iv, 3 and 4 : "I will make an everlasting covenant with 

 you, even the sure mercies of David. Behold, I have given 

 him for a witness to the peoples." A witness is, of course, a 

 teacher of those matters to which he mtnesses. David having 

 been long dead when Isaiah wrote, the reference is naturally to 

 his posterity ; the Jews read practically all such passages as 

 referring to Messiah. 



Psa. xxii, 22 : '"'I will declare Thy name unto My brethren." 

 The name, in Scripture, stands for the quahties, and as this psalm 

 is accepted in the Yalkut as referring to the Messiah, it was a 

 prophecy that He would declare the quahties of God to His 

 brethren — that is, that He would be a teacher of theology. 



Deut. x^dii, 15 : " The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee 

 a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren." The first 

 office of a Prophet was, of course, to teach. We have seen that 

 the rulers of the Jews did not regard this jDrophecy as Messianic, 

 but apparently some of the common people did, for Phihp said 

 to Nathaniel (John i, 45), " We have found Him, of whom Moses 

 in the law, and the prophets did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the 

 son of Joseph." 



The prophecies created a definite expectation that Messiah 

 would be a wise teacher. On Ps. cxix, 33, the Midrash remarks 

 that there were three who asked wisdom of God : David, Solomon, 

 and the King Messiah. 



On Cant, viii, 2, the Targum has it : " I will take Thee, 0 King 

 Messiah, and make Thee go up into my temple, there Thou shalt 

 teach me to tremble before the Lord, and to walk in His ways." 



In the Midrash on Eccles. xi, 8, it is noted that, however many 

 years a man might study, his learning would be empty before the 

 teaching of Messiah. 



The above and similar quotations are from Edersheim. There 

 is no evidence that they are verbally pre-Christian, but a high 

 probabihty that they reflect pre-Christian opinion. 



