You ask my
opinion of the following quotation, taken from "What We Jews Believe," in which
Samuel S. Cohon, professor of theology in the Hebrew Union College, Cincinnati, declares
that the term anointed referred not, in the Hebrew Bible, to a "unique and mysterious
personage," like Jesus Christ:
". . . The title M'shiah Adonai - the anointed of the Lord - is
used in no supernatural sense throughout the Hebrew Bible. It is applied to Saul, to
David, and to other kings of Israel, in the same sense in which we speak of a king as
'crowned.' The term referred to no unique and mysterious personage of the perfected
kingdom of the future may be seen from the application by the prophet to the gentile king
like Cyrus" (Is. 45:1).
It is an indisputable fact that the kings of Israel,
and Cyrus were referred to as anointed; so were the priests of the Hebrew Bible (Lev. 4:3).
"Moses poured oil on Aaron's head, and anointed him" (Lev. 8:12).
But the term applied in a unique way to the M'shiah, called the Anointed One.
The claim that the term referred not to the M'shiah, the Christ, in a unique
way, because it was applied to others, Cyrus for instance, is refuted in Psalm 2:2 and
Psalm 109:4 (Hebrew Bible, 110:4), in which a "unique" priest, the
Christ, is referred to, who was to be "begotten," instead of being made in the
natural way as were the members of the house of Aaron, who were priests. Instead of being
a figurative, successive, transitory priest, as were those of Aaron, He was referred to as
an eternal, unchangeable "priest according to the order of Melchesidec." He was
not to be anointed in an external way, with oil, as was Saul, David and Solomon; His
anointing being an internal unction of the Holy Spirit, beinthe High Priest of heaven.
Hannah, the mother of Samuel, alludes to a "unique" personage (I Kings 2: 10;
Hebrew Bible, I Sam. 2:10), in her canticle, at the time when there was no
king of the Jews, as the "horn of His (God's) anointed," who is the M'shiah.
Cyrus, though referred to as anointed, was never consecrated with oil by the
Jews, as were their kings. He was honored as a saviour of the Jews, having issued the
edict that enabled them to return to Judea to rebuild the Temple. He prefigured the
M'shiah, the Anointed One, whom Isaiah said (45) would bud forth from Israel as
the Saviour of mankind.
The understanding of Jews, who look objectively at Christian truth, would be
greatly furthered by a comprehension of the plainly evident fact that present-day Judaism
is a mass of negatives; a denial of this, that, and everything else that is basically
Christian. Its mind is set upon denying Jesus to be the Anointed One, the M'shiah, terms
rightly used interchangeably.
The holy Jews of the days when Jesus "came unto His own" in
Palestine, who were not swayed by the worldly priests who disgraced Israel, recognized
Jesus as their M'shiah, the Anointed of God. Simon-Peter spoke for them, when in answer to
the question, "Whom do men say the Son of man is?" (using the title, Son of man,
which Daniel used to designate the M'shiah, Dan. 7:13), replied, "Thou art the
M'shiah, the Anointed One (Matt. 16; Luke 9:20-21). Jesus, the M'shiah, is
the Prophet King and Priest of Israel, according to the Hebrew Bible. He is the Prophet
Moses said God would raise up for Israel, whom "thou shalt hear" (Deut.
18:15). He is the King prophesied by David to be the Only Begotten Son of God (Ps.
2). He is "the Priest forever" who, as prophesied in Psalm iog (Hebrew
Bible, 110), would make His enemies His footstool, be the judge of nations,
etc. I would recommend a study of the seventh chapter of St. Paul's Epistle to the Hebrews
for a profound, yet clear understanding of the uniqueness of Jesus the Anointed, the
"M'shiah Adonai," the non-genealogical, eternal, Messianic Priest, in contrast
to the anointed priests of the house of Aaron, whose transitory nature is shown, as is
those of Israel's kings, by their being personages of the historic ages long gone by. |