8

efficacious mediation all the divine purposes were carried into act. Lastly, in the Zohar, (a cabalistic commentary on Scripture, the principal part of which was probably composed within two or three centuries after the Christian era, by Simeon Ben Jochai, and his disciples) the Messiah, in his preexistent condition, is again described as the Word, Son, and Image, of God; as the Creator of the World; as the gracious Schechina, or immediate and glorious Presence of Jehovah; and as being himself Jehovah : vide Schoettgen de Messia, pp. 911, 912.

Such are the unexceptionable criteria, on which has been formed the almost unanimous decision of bibli

8 The passages in the works of Philo, in which he makes mention of the Aóyos or Word of God, are very numerous. The following extracts may suffice as specimens of them. In explaining the word Bethel, in Gen. xxviii, 17, he says, Τίς ἂν οὖν εἴη, πλὴν ὁ Λόγος ὁ Πρεσβύτερος τῶν γένεσιν εἰληφότων, οὗ καθάπερ οἴακος ἐνειλημμένος, (qu. ἐφειλημμένος) ὁ τῶν ὅλων κυβερνήτης πηδαλιουχεῖ τὰ σύμπαντα· καὶ ὅτε ἐκοσμοπλάστει χρησάμενος ὀργάνῳ τούτῳ πρὸς τὴν ἀνυπαίτιον τῶν ἀποτελουμένων σύστασιν. "Who can this be but the Word, the Elder of all things that have received birth, of whom, as of a helm, the Director of all things laying hold, steers the universe; and whom, when he formed the world, he employed as his instrument, in the faultless composition of his finished works:" De Migrat. Abrah. Ed. Mangeii, tom. i, p. 437. In his book of Allegories, our author thus comments upon the Hebrew name Bezaleël, which may be interpreted, "God in the shadow:" Σκιὰ Θεοῦ δὲ, ὁ Λόγος αὐτοῦ ἐστιν ᾧ καθάπες ὀργανῷ προσχρησάμενος εκοσμοποίει· αὕτη δὲ ἡ σκιὰ καὶ τὸ ὡσανεὶ ἀπεικόνισμα, ἑτέρων ἔστιν ἀρχέτυπον. "The shadow of God is his Word, whom he employed as his instrument when he made the world; this shadow, or as it were, express image, being the archetype of other things:" lib. iii, Ed. Mang. i, 106. In his work de Agricultura he again writes as follows: Καθάπερ γάρ τινα ποίμνην, γῆν καὶ ὕδωρ καὶ ἄερα καὶ πῦρ, καὶ ὅσα ἐν τούτοις φυτά τε ὧν καὶ ζῶα τὰ μεν θνητὰ, τὰ δε θεῖα, κ.τ.λ, ὡς ποιμὴν καὶ βασιλεὺς ὁ Θεὸς ἄγει κατὰ δίκην καὶ νόμον, προστήσαμενος τὸν ὀρθόν αυτοῦ Λόγον πρωτόγονον Υιόν, ὅς τὴν ἐπιμέλειαν τῆς ἱερᾶς ταύτης ἀγέλης οἷά τις μεγάλου βασιλέως ὑπαρχος διαδέξεται. (qu. διαδέχεται). “ For God, in the capacity of a shepherd and king, conducts as a flock, under just regulation, the earth, the water, the air, and the fire, and whatever things are in them, vegetable or animal, mortal or immortal; together with the constitution of the heavens, the periods of the sun and moon, and the revolutions and harmonious courses of the stars; and he places over them his righteous Word, his First-begotten Son, who, like some deputy of a great king, is charged with the government of this sacred flock :" tom. i, p. 308. 9 The indefatigable Schoettgen is said to have passed many years in the examination of that curious relic of Jewish antiquity-the Zohar. The information which he derived from it respecting the opinions of its authors on the subject of the divine character of the Messiah, he states as follows: "As far then as relates to the names of the Messiah, he is expressly mentioned in the book of Zohar, under the essential name Jehovah, and is also called the Angel of God, the Schechina, the Divine Ma

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AND WHO ISs himself, JEHOVAH.

cal critics, that according to the doctrine of the apostle John, Christ preexistent--the Word-was the person through whom all the wonderful works of the Father were effected-that he was himself, and in a manner absolutely peculiar to his own case, the truth, wisdom, and operative power, of God. Now, from these his essential attributes, Jehovah may indeed be distinguished, but can never be separated, nor does it appear to be in any degree probable, that such a title, with such a meaning, should be attributed by the apostle to the Son of God, on any other principle than that of his actual deity—of his being truly one in the divine nature with the Father Almighty. This conclusion is obviously confirmed, in a very striking manner, by the theology of the Targumists, who (as has been already hinted) plainly and very frequently identify the Word of Jehovah, with Jehovah himself.

V. In perfect consistency with the application to Christ preexistent of the title Word, it is to him that the work of creation itself is, in the New Testament, repeatedly attributed.

The apostle John does not hesitate to assure us,

jesty, the Metatron, Michaël the Archangel, the Angel of the Covenant, the Word of God, the Holy, Blessed God.".... Again, "His divinity is proved in the Zohar, because he is described by the essential name of God. He is called the image of God and the splendour of his glory, the Lord of Hosts, the Son of God, the Son of the Highest, the Faithful Shepherd, the Lord over this lower world, the Lord of ministering angels, the Gracious Schechina. The following divine attributes are moreover ascribed to the Messiah ;-Eternity, because the decree of predestination is made in him from eternity; and Omnipotence, because he works miracles. Amongst his divine works it is recorded, that the Messiah created the world, destroys the power of Satan, and receives penitents into favour. To these things are to be added the worship that is given to him, and the doctrine that God the Father swears by him," &c. &c.: De Messia, pp. 911, 912. From the close correspondence of these doctrines with those of the New Testament, Scoettgeen concludes that Simeon Ben Jochaï was a Judaizing Christian; but this notion is not generally adopted. Indeed it appears to be precluded by the fact that this cabalistic doctor has always enjoyed a high reputation among the Jews. Whether, however, he was a Christian or not, he is a powerful commentator on the meaning of the apostle John, in the exordium of his Gospel.

ALL THINGS MADE BY HIM.

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that "All things were made by him," and that "without him was not any thing made that was made :" i, 3.1 Again, he says of Christ," He was in the world, and THE WORLD WAS MADE BY HIM :" ver. 10. The Greek preposition here rendered" by," as it is used in various parts of the New Testament, denotes indifferently either the mediating or the original cause of a thing. On a reference, however, to the doctrine of the Jews respecting the Word of God, (the title applied to our Lord in the preceding part of this passage), I am inclined to the opinion, that Christ preexistent is here described as the person through whom the universe was created; in which case the statement here made by the evangelist corresponds precisely with that of another inspired writer on the same subject. God," says the apostle, to the Hebrews, "hath in

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1 John i, 3. 10. Πάντα δι' αὐτοῦ ἐγένετο· καὶ χωρὶς αὐτοῦ ἐγένετο οὐδὲ ἕν, yeyovev. The verb yέvero rendered in our version "were made,” might perhaps be translated still more literally, "came into existence." To say that all things came into existence by Christ, is however precisely the same, in point of effect, as to say that all things were made by him. That the apostle's doctrine imports nothing less than that all things were created by Christ preexistent, is abundantly evident for the following critical reasons: 1st, Because, in other passages of the New Testament which relate to creation, the same verb (yívouar) is employed in the same sense: see Heb. xi, 3; James iii, 9; comp. Acts xix, 26. 2ndly, Because the apostle is here speaking of the Word; and it was the well-known doctrine of the Jews, (founded on the Old Testament) that God created all things by his Word. 3rdly, Because there is a conspicuous correspondence between the whole of this passage in the Gospel of John, and the Mosaic account of the creation; and, in the Septuagint version of the latter, (the version of the Old Testament, from which this apostle uniformly derived his citations) this very word yévero is again and again employed, to express the coming into existence of the creatures of God. When God said, Let there be light-yέvero pãs, there was light, or the light was created.→ When God said, Let there be a firmament-yevero ourws, it was so, or it was so created, &c. The same terms are employed on the production of each of the six successive parts of the creation, and no one part of the creation was effected without the previous proclamation of the divine word of command-a circumstance which plainly elucidates the apostle's declaration, that without the Word, ¿yéveto ovde v ö yeyovev,-not one thing was made, that was made. In the Septuagint version of Gen. ii, 4, yevro represents the Hebrew creatus est. 4thly, Because the same doctrine is repeated in verse 10-a verse, in which no reasonable critic would venture to impose on severo, any other signification than that of coming into existence, or being created. “ He was in the world, καὶ ὁ κόσμος δὲ ἀυτοῦ ἐγένετο -and the world was made by him.'

R

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DESCRIBED AS THE MEDIUM,

these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, BY WHOM ALSO HE MADE THE WORLDS :" Heb. i, 2.o

But, in whichsoever sense we understand the preposition "by" in John i, 3, 10, the fact thus recorded, that the Son was himself the Maker of all thingsthat he actually wrought out the whole creation of God-affords (according to my apprehension of the subject) a satisfactory and decisive evidence that he was not himself a creature-that on the contrary, he really participated in the nature of the Father. It is by the visible works of the creation, as the apostle Paul has declared, that "the eternal power and Godhead" of Jehovah are demonstrated to our understanding; (Rom. i, 20;) and nothing, I would submit, can be more improbable in natural theology, or more at variance with revelation, than the notion, that God first created a particular being, and then employed that being as the Creator of the rest of the universe. "I am Jehovah," saith God by his prophet Isaiah, "that maketh all things, that stretcheth forth the heavens ALONE, that spreadeth abroad the earth by MYSELF. . . . . . . .I am Jehovah, and there is none else:" Is. xliv, 24; xlv, 18: comp. Gen. i, 1.

In conformity with the tenor of these remarks, the apostle, in addressing the Hebrews, has no sooner spoken of the Son of God, as the person by whom the Father made the worlds, than he proceeds to expatiate on his divine character; and presently

2 Heb. i, 2. δι' οὗ καὶ τοὺς αἰῶνας ἐποίησεν. The substantive αἰῶνες is again employed to signify the worlds or the universe, in ch. xii, 3, and elsewhere by the apostle Paul: vide I Tim. i, 17; I Cor. ii, 7. This application of the word is considered to be an Hebraism; for the Rabbins make a precisely similar use of the corresponding expression, . God is described, by these writers, as

that is, as Lord of all the worlds: see Gill, Com. in loc.

AND AS THE AUTHOR,

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adduces one of the Psalms, in which the Son is addressed, not merely as the medium, but as the author, of the creation. "But unto the Son3 he saith.... Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of thy hands:" Ps. cii, 25; Heb. i, 8—10.

And now, in order to complete the present division of my argument, I have only to advert to that sublime passage of the epistle of Paul to the Colossians, in which the Son of God, the First-born1 of the universe, is presented to our attention as the Former of the most powerful intelligent creatures, the Creator of the material and immaterial world, the object as well as the medium or author of all things. God," says this inspired writer, "hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the

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3 πρὸς δὲ τὸν υἱόν, κ.τ.λ. Some critics have observed, that πρὸς in this passage ought to be rendered concerning, and not unto-a remark, suggested by the use of this preposition in the preceding verse.—Πρὸς μὲν τοὺς ἀγγέλους λέγει, κ.τ.λ. "Unto (or concerning) the angels he saith, Who maketh his angels spirits," &c. It is undeniable, however, that the proper force of gos is "unto," and it is surely very questionable whether it can ever be otherwise rightly rendered, when it introduces (as in this passage) a form of address: (see a multitude of similar examples in Schmidii Conc. N.T.). Whether, however, we render gòs in Heb. i, 8, unto, or concerning, the argument of the apostle is, in substance, precisely the same. the divine Person addressed in the passage cited from Psalm cii, is the only person mentioned, or in any even the slightest manner alluded to in that passage, it follows, that if the passage was written concerning the Son, the Son is the person there addressed.

As

4 TEWTÓTOKOS TÚONs xríosws." The First-born (or First-begotten) of the whole creation." This title affords no support to the unscriptural notion, that the Son of God was himself a creature; for there is a marked distinction between rózos, the derivative of τίκτω gigno, and κτίσις, the derivative of κτίζω creo. And since TETOS or TgTov is sometimes followed by a genitive case, and thus assumes the force of goragos or góregov, (as in John i, 15. 30. xv, 18; I Tim. ii, 1;) we may conclude with Casaubon, that πρωτότοκος πάσης κτίσεως is grammatically equivalent το τεχθεὶς πρὸ πάσης κτίσεως, ante ullam rem creatam genitus-begotten before any thing was made. While, however, the priority of the Son, in point of time, before all creatures, is plainly expressed in this phrase, it is most probable, that the title goróToxos also includes the idea of lordship and preeminence—a notion, which sometimes attaches to the corresponding Hebrew term, vide Deut. xxxiii, 17; Job xviii, 13; Isa. xiv, 30; Jer. xxxi, 9; so Schleusner, after Drusius, Cameron, Whitby, Macknight, and others, interprets goτóroxoc as signifying, princeps,

et dominus omnium rerum creatarum.