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Whatever may Tbe the sense of the original , it is perfectly evident that this Paraphrast considered the words of God to David to be the promise of a king to sit on his throne , and explained that promise as applying to the Messiah , who was to rule m the fear of Jehovah , not to be the God of Israel . Dr . S . ' s translation is unwarrae table , as the meaning he assigns to the passage is preposterous . One other example , which we shall take from the xlvth Psalm , will suffice ; Dr . S . quotes from the Targum ,
" Ver . 2 . Thy heauty ,. O king * Messiah , is pre-eminent above the sons of men : the spirit of prophecy is given unto thy lips : therefore God hath blessed thee for ever . ( V er . 70 The throne of thy glory , O Jehovah , standeth for ever and ever ; a righteous sceptre is the sceptre of thy kingdom . ( Ver _ 8 . ) Because thou hast loved righteousness , ana hated wickedness , therefore thus hath Jehovah thy God anointed thee with the ointment of joy profusely above thy fellows . **
There is surely enough in this passage which is inconsistent with Deity in the person addressed , but the question is whether Dr . S . has rightly translated and applied the words of the Targum , ver . 7 ; and if we were obliged to admit without question the present pointing of the word D'p , we could not object to his version , however much we might be astonished at the sense it seems to convey ; but the Targums originally existed and long remained unpointed . The pointing was first performed by various and unknown individuals in a very inaccurate manner , and as now given , it has been reviewed
and corrected by several Christians , especiall y by Buxtorf , who would , without doubt , point according to their own notion of the sense of the passage . Now , considering the word D'p . as a verb , and pointing it with a Trere fnstead of a Kametz under the > , the translation is , " The throne of thy glory . Jehovah hath established for ever ? which exactly corresponds with the sense ascribed to the Hebrew original by Mr * Belsham and others * And if any one is scrupulous about altering the points , ( though their authority
isgenerally allowed to be exceedingly small , ) we would refer him to * the Targum on Ps . x . ver . 12 , where the same word occurring as a verb is , nevertheless , pointed with the Kametz , probably by mistake , as there seems to be no doubt about the sense . The words are "p > J"tf / Ottf D'p " Dip , •* Arise ,. O Jehovah , establish the covenant of thy hand . " All other supposed cases of divine names being attributed to the Messiah in the Targums are susceptible of equally easy explanation .
In his chapter on the Apocrypha , Dr . S . ' s utmost ingenuity can produce nothing more like evidence for his system than the expression " Eternal Saviour" in the book of Baruch , a book the date of which is unknown , and which is entirely destitute of authority . Yet even here the Common Version , ** The Everlasting , our Saviour , " is to be preferred to his , because the . Everlasting occurs frequently as a name of the JL ) eity in the same book * and is even found in the same sentence .
From Philo our author quotes pretty largely . He identifies the logos of this writer with the . Messiah , supposing him to have been led by nis philosophical opinions to dwell chiefly on the spiritual part of the mixed nature , whilst he occasionally recognizes personal qualities rather through the influence of the prevailing opinions of the Jews in general , than in strict con-, sistency with his own theories . "It appears tome , " says Dr .-S ' , ' that there is a real inconsistency in the assertions arid doctrines of Philo concerning the Logos ; but such inconsistency as , though not excusable , is yet capable of being accounted for on
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% ftb £ > r . •/ . P . Smith's Scripture Testimony to the Messiah .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1831, page 460, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2599/page/28/
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