The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1910-12-24
JESUS OF NAZARETH.

81 give testimony that this is the Son of God"
John l. "a.
That the ancient Hebrews-the Hebrews of the
days of the prophets-had clear notions of the
Messiah there can be no doubt. 1t is singular
however, that with their sacred Books their tradi
tions, and their Talmuds, the Jews for century
before the birth of Christ should have formed to
themselves chimerical ideas of the Messiah, utterly
unknown to their forefathers.
Their own prophets, beginning in ancient times,
had foretold that the Messiah would, when he
, came among men, be God and man, exalted and
abased master and servant, priest and victim,
prince and subject; swallowed up in DEATH yet vic
tor over DEATH rich yet poor; king, a conquerer,
a man of griefs, acquainted with nfirmities,
known, in a state of AFFECTION and humiliation All
these contraries were to be reeonced, according
to the voice of prophesy in the person Of the Mes
siah, and as they really We're in the person of the
Redeemer.
1t was foretold indeed it was known, that the
Messiah was to be born of a virgin; of the tribe
of Juda: of the race Of David; in the village of
Bethlehem. 1t was also foretold and believed that
The Amounted One-the Messah-was to continue
forever: that his coming to be concealed; that
be was to work wonders; that he should die and
rise again: that proofs Of his divine Sonship and
his prophetic mission would be the cure of lepers
life restored to the dead, and the gospel that IS
the viii of God preached to the poor Further
more the aneients isasueed by God prophesied that
the Christine Holy one-shoud not destroy the
law of the Covenant but should perfect and fulfill
ii: that he should be stone of offence and Stun
bling block against which many would bruise them
selves that he should suffer many oppositfons and
contradictions; that beginning with him, the wor-
ship Of idols would disappear, the power of Satan
diminish and, strangest of all, the Gentiles, and
the inhabitants of the islands of the sea, and Of
the lands far off. would submit themselves to his
authority. to the sceptre Of the chemite.
When Caiphas the high priest, said to Jesus on
trial for basphemy Il adiure thee by the living God
that thou tell us if thou be the Christ, the Son of
God" Many of the proofs and signs of his Messiah
ic mission were in the possession of Caiphas
well known to the doctors of the law and to the
members of the Sarhedric Congress. Indeed, our
Savior appeals to these more learned in the Scrip
lures, calls their attention to these marks of the
Messiah and asks If they do not see them visible
In himself and his mission. Though these char
acters we're sadly depraved among the common
people who at his coming, entertained a false con-
ception of the Messiah, still the disciples and
apostles take particular care TO put the Jews in
mind Of them to prove that Jesus is the Messiah
and the Christ foretold by the prophets. St Peter
quoted the prophecies to the multitude to prove to
them that in expecting temporal monarch and g
conqueror who should remove the Roman yoke and
subject the world to Jerusalem, they we're dece7-
ing themselves.
There can be no doubt Of it; the Jewish nation,
at about the time of our Lords birth, entertained
very general expectation of the appearance of the
Messiah, and we now know, they had more ways
than one Of computing the period of the coming OF
ethe Expected of Ages
From collation. of the passages occurring in
the writings Of Josephus the Jewish historian and
of the Roman annalists, Tacitus and Seutonius.
we notice that three historians agree % that there
was general expectation, not only among the
Jews. but all over Asia, of new kingdom to APP
pear at about the time of the birth Of Christ which
would, in time, take in the whole earth. % This |
opinion. according to Seutonius, was very ancient
and. from remote times, unbroken; 1T is found In
the holy books Of the prophets derived down also |