The Authenticity and Messianic Interpretation of the Prophecies of Isaiah

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virgin standing there could conceive. So Bunsen, Die Jungfrau da. Eichhorn, Paulus, &c., an ideal virgin, within the time that an ideal virgin could marry and have a son. Ewald, a virgin, i.e. one neither too young nor too old to marry. Hofmann, a virgin, but in the vocatiw case; •O virgin, i.e. 0 house of DaYid, as yet unmarried of the Lord, thou shalt see thy promises fulfilled, and have a son.' See also the note to page 14. Drechsler, Der Proplt. Jes., i. 287, says that al112alimeans 1:il'go11uuilis, and lwtlrnlali, Cll'[/0 illibata; and asks, """hy did Isaiah call the Messiah's mother almali, and not bet/1111a!t? It was because all that was high in rank and of noble birth in Judooa had apostatized from God's covenant; and therefore the Saviour did not come in princely guise, but in poverty; not as a hero riding on a war-horse, but meek and lowly, upon an ass's foal. Nor did Ile gather round Him the Pharisees and learned scribes to form His court as the Priest-king of Jerusalem, but publicans and fishermen. The world He saved not by life and conquest, but by death and submission. And equally His followers must be " the servants of all." Now it is in Isaiah that prophecy first takes this direction. The Deliverer of the realm is a new-born infant, the government rests upon the shoulder of a child. And that child is born of an almali. He is not the royal offspring of the queen, not even the son of a married wife; but of one whom law and propriety withdraw from this office. (J od has chosen the ,vcak things of the world to confound the mighty, and things "¡hich are not to bring to nought things ,vhich are. It is therefore not the i1?1ii:l, the t'irgo illibata, but the n:-.=:?~, the virgo 11uui1is,who brings forth the Messiah." ,vith this interpretation Drechsler connects Isa. liv. 4, "the shame of thy unmarriedness," 1'01?~.

Page 26, line 31.-According to the Talmud the whole prophecy relating to l\lahershalal must be taken spiritually; for quoting the words of Isa. viii. 2, it says, "What has Uriah to do with Zechariah the son of Barachiah ?" (Our version reads Jerebechiab, but the Septuagint, the Peschito,


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