88 LT.-COL. MOLONY, O.B.E., LATE R.E., ON PREDICTIONS AND 



details of Christ's sufferings, while the 22nd Psalm has no less 

 than fifteen, making twenty-four points accurately foretold. 



There is evidence that some J ews expected a suffering Messiah 

 to be descended from Ephraim, but probably the expectation 

 was not general. The fact that a Teacher was expected doubtless 

 swelled the gathering which listened to the Sermon on the 

 Mount, and Messianic expectation was probably useful to Jesus 

 Christ in other ways, but if the Jews had already generally 

 applied the 22nd Psalm and 53rd Isaiah to the Messiah, they 

 would probably have killed Jesus by stoning instead of cruci- 

 fixion, so as to contradict His claims to be the Messiah. Thus, 

 lack of widespread expectation is, in this case, no detriment to 

 the general proof of inspiration, but rather argues Divine 

 superintendence. Thus it is clear that, it being desirable not to 

 create general expectation, the prophecy was better veiled, 

 provided that it could be recognized immediately after its ful- 

 filment : and this evidently was possible, from the fact that the 

 two disciples, by the time they arrived at Emmaus, recognized 

 that Messiah's sufferings had been foretold. 



It is interesting to note from Luke ii, 35, and John iii, 14, that 

 Simeon and Christ Himself read the prophecies aright. There 

 is also a very remarkable passage in Chapter ii of the Wisdom of 

 Solomon. 



For proof that the prophecies of Messiah's sufferings were 

 fulfilled upon Jesus of Nazareth it is convenient to quote the 

 well-known French sceptic Renan. He can hardly have been 

 ignorant that the sufferings were foretold, and he probably decided 

 to trade on the ignorance of his Parisian readers and practically 

 admit the fulfilments, because he knew that the evidence was 

 too strong to be set aside. 



The following passages are taken verbatim from Wilbour's 

 translation of the Vie de Jesus, by Kenan : " Jesus preserved 

 silence. . . . Jesus was, none the less, from that hour a 

 condemned man. He remained during the rest of the night 

 exposed to the ill-treatment of a base varletry, who spared Him 

 no affront. ... A general clamor arose, Not this one, 

 but Jesus, Bar Rabban. . . . Pilate caused Him to be 

 whipped. Flaggellation was the ordinary preliminary of cruci- 

 fixion. . . . Crucifixion was not of Jewish origin. . . . 

 the cross was a Roman punishment. . . . The Cohort 

 had already in reserve two thieves to be executed. 

 According to Jewish usage, the victims were offered a highly- 



