The early Christian historians are important to show clearly that the fleshly lineage of Israel that might have claimed rights to
the kingship, the priesthood, and/or the land were indeed "cut off"
and the official, traceable lineage obliterated, except for Christ.
The legitimate kingship ended in Christ. Eusebius shows that the native Jewish dynasty ended when Herod the Idumean became the first foreign king, and
therefore the scepter departed from Judah, that is, the legitimate kingship
ended in Christ as foretold. He cites Genesis 49:10:
There shall not be wanting a ruler from Judah, nor a
leader sprung from his loins, until he come for whom it is reserved."[i]
This is a proof that
Christ was "He...for
whom it (the kingship) is reserved.
Since Herod was an Idumean, the Jews did not accept him as
their rightful king, knowing that their king should be one genetically
descended from David. Therefore
Herod destroyed the genealogical records. Eusebius says:
So Herod who had no drop of Israelitish
blood in his veins and was stung by the consciousness of his base origin, burnt
the registers of their families, thinking that he would appear nobly born if no
one else was able by reference to public documents to trace his line back to
the patriarchs or proselytes, or to the 'sojourners' of mixed blood. A few
careful people had private records of their own, having either remembered the
names or recovered them from copies, and took pride in preserving the memory of
their aristocratic origin. These included the people mentioned above, known as
Desposyni (the Master's People) because of their relationship to the Saviour's
family.[ii]
Therefore the only genealogies that
remained extant after Herod had burned the official records were the few
unofficial family records, and many of these were people claiming kinship to
Christ's earthly
family. We should note that Christ was presented in the Temple for both his circumcision and his dedication,
at which time he was also named, (Luke 2:21-24). By this rite Christ was properly
enrolled as an heir according to the Law. His genealogies are now a part
of the Holy Scriptures and so are eternally valid. There are no other official
genealogical records of any living person whose genealogy is traceable to David and to Abraham.
The fact that Herod felt threatened by the babies of Bethlehem shows that he thought they had credible and
legal genealogical rights to the kingship, (Matthew 2:1-18). By killing them
Herod destroyed many of the lineage of David who would have been eligible for the kingship.
The story of the flight into Egypt explains how Christ was divinely preserved.
Eusebius goes on to trace the genealogy of Christ and to reconcile the two accounts in Matthew chapter one
and Luke chapter 3 by showing how the law regarding the
re-marriage of childless widows in order to raise up heirs for the deceased
kinsman explains how that the same person can be regarded as the child of different
fathers, both the biological father and the legal father, the deceased husband
of one's mother.[iii]
The High-Priesthood ended in Christ. Eusebius shows also that Hyrcanus was "the last to whom fell the
high-priestly succession." When he was taken prisoner by the Parthians and
Herod became the ruler the legitimate High
Priesthood ended in Christ as foretold:
Herod no longer appointed high priests
of the ancient stock but assigned the office to nonentities, and that a policy
similar to Herod's regarding the appointment of priests was adopted by his son
Archelaus, and after him by the Romans, when they took over the government of Judaea (p. 52). (See chart in my book at
Commentary on 1:6 “Enumeration of High Priests.”)
The end of the dynasty of succession to
the kingship and the priesthood in a sense also brought about the end of the
succession rights to the tribal and family lands.
The point is that there remains no other
legitimate king, no other priest, nor any other heir to the land except Christ whose genealogy is in the sacred, canonical
Scriptures and whose resurrection from the dead makes Him the eternally
effective fulfillment of all of the promises of succession rights, to the
kingship, the priesthood and the land. As Eusebius has also written, the anointing upon the Jews
ended in Christ according to the prophecy in Daniel 9: 25-6.[iv]
For those steeped in the tradition that
modern so-called "Israel" is the fulfillment of Old Testament
prophecies, it must be pointed out that all of the Old Testament prophecies of
return to the land were literally fulfilled in the returns described in Ezra and Nehemiah. The destruction of the nation
and the city of Jerusalem in 70 AD, as predicted by Daniel and by Christ, is described in the Book of Revelation as well as by the secular historian Josephus. This was the final end of the
fleshly nation as such.
The modern application of Scriptures
concerning the Israel of God should be applied to the true Church. Those things which happened
upon the fleshly Israel of the Old Covenant are an example and a pattern for the
instruction and warning of the Church: 1Corinthians 10:6-12; Galatians 3:24; Hebrews 3:7-4:11.
The spiritual fulfillment and application is eternally relevant in
Christ and will never pass away. The fleshly, literal
and natural application has been completely and finally fulfilled. The literal
interpretation, i.e. "the letter," killeth, but the spiritual
interpretation maketh alive," 2 Corinthians 3:6.
[i] Eusebius, History of the
Church, 1.6.6; 1.7.4; 1.7.14.
Eusebius depends largely upon Josephus for much of his
historical material. He does have several other sources, however, and accepts
the gospel records as historically accurate.
[ii] Domitian ordered the
execution of all those of David's lineage, fearing the return of Christ, as Herod had done. Some of
the grandsons of Jude, the brother of Christ, were found and accused, but were
thought to be too poor and ignorant to be any threat. See Eusebius, History of the
Church, 3.18.19 and 3.18.20.
[iii] Ibid. "The argument of Africanus must be treated
with respect, Joseph's pedigree may not matter to us, but Christians have
always been troubled, as he was, by the apparent discrepancy between the two
gospel accounts, which seemed to cast doubts on the reliability of one writer
or both. Nor is Africanus's solution to be ruled out. He clearly derived his
information from relatives of the Holy Family, and it must be remembered that
in the Near East family trees were, and still are, most carefully preserved;
and that the 'raising up' of offspring to a childless brother must often have
occurred," (G. A. Williamson, Eusebius note 1, page 56 on
1.7.14).
[iv] Ibid. 1.6.6 and 1.7.4. It should be further observed
that Josephus records that in
the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD: "They fired the Archivum and Acra, and the
council-house, and Ophla: and the fire destroyed unto the palaces of Helen,
which were in the middle of Acra," (quoting Josephus).
"Whether he means the magistrates' court, or the
repository of the ancient records, according to the different signification
of the word, we do not determine. There were certainly sacred records in the
Temple, and civil records no doubt in the city, where writings
and memorials of sales, contracts, donations, and public acts, &c. were
laid up. I should more readily understand this of their repository, than of the magistrates'
court, because, presently after, the council-house is distinctly named,"
(Lightfoot, CNT vol. 1, p. 55).
This lesson is an edited excerpt from my book Revelation In Context. My Book is available at the Living Word Bookstore in Shawnee, Oklahoma and is also available online at www.amazon.com or www.xulonpress.com. Free downloads are available at www.revelationincontext.sermon.net
This lesson is an edited excerpt from my book Revelation In Context. My Book is available at the Living Word Bookstore in Shawnee, Oklahoma and is also available online at www.amazon.com or www.xulonpress.com. Free downloads are available at www.revelationincontext.sermon.net
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