King and Messiah

A fascinating glimpse into the debate in Scandinavia concerning a number of inter-related Biblical themes focused on the concept of the Messiah, a debate associated with scholars such as Mowinckel, Pedersen, Widengren, and Bentzen himself. The argument traces the development of the Messianic figure from its Old Testament roots, starting with the Messiah of many of the Psalms, which represents a demythologised form of the Oriental conception of kingship, through the eschatologised Messiah of the prophetic thought of Isaiah and Micah, and then to the prophet-Messiah of Second Isaiah, which although still a present and entirely human figure, embodies the insight that the saviour of Israel must suffer and be cast in the role of a 'Moses Redivivus' as leader of a new Exodus. The Son of Man of Daniel 7 carries this eschatologising process even further, until the Christology of the New Testament emerges as a creative synthesis of these Old Testament types. In this synthesis, Jesus is a new Adam, the Messiah present in the flesh and present still in His body the Church, the suffering Prophet playing the part of the new Moses and the once and future Divine King. Bentzen argues that ultimately this figure of Christ the Messiah transcends not only the Old Testament types on which it is based, but also the subsequent historical development of the Christian Messianic tradition.