First Page:
An Amicable Controversy
With
A Jewish Rabbi,
On
The Messiah's Coming:
Unfolding
New Views on Prophecy
And The
Nature of the Millenium:
With an Entirely New
Exposition of Zechariah,
On The
Messiah's Kingdom
By J. R. Park, M.D. &c.
London:
Smith, Elder, And Co. 65, Cornhill
1832
CONTENTS
Preface. Introduction. Zechariah On The Messiah's Kingdom. Interpretation: Chapter IX. Notes To Chapter IX. Hebrew Punctuation. The Rabbi's Exposition And Reply, Chapter IX. Zechariah, Chapter IX. Remarks On The Rabbi's Exposition. Zechariah On The Messiah's Kingdom. Interpretation: Chapter X. Notes To Chapter IX. The Rabbi's Reply, And The Author's Remarks Upon It. Chapter X. Zechariah On The Messiah's Kingdom. Interpretation: Chapter XI. Notes To Chapter XI. The Rabbi's Translation. Chapter XI. The Rabbi's Exposition. Chapter XI. Zechariah On The Messiah's Kingdom. Interpretation: Chapter XII. Notes To Chapter XII. The Rabbi's Exposition, And The Author's Remarks. Chapter XII. Zechariah On The Messiah's Kingdom. Interpretation: Chapter XIII. Notes To Chapter XIII. Zechariah On The Messiah's Kingdom. Interpretation: Chapter XIV. Notes To Chapter XIV. The Millenium.
PREFACE.
What! another Commentary on Zechariah! the reader is ready to exclaim. Have we not a Lowth and a Blayney? What can learning, talent, or research effect, that has not been effected already? In a word, I answer nothing. But, on the other hand, I ask, what have they effected? With the exception of particular passages, on which light has been thrown, the general scope of the prophecy remains as obscure as ever. Sufficient proof of this appears in the want of consistency in the plan of interpretation, which in one verse looks to future events, and in another to events long past, for explanation; in one part supposes the prophet to offer a connected series of consecutive predictions; in the next supposes him to be carried away by a transport into a digression bordering upon incoherency; varying, moreover, continually in the principle of exposition, which is literal or figurative, political or spiritual by turns. Surely this is not legitimate exposition, but rather bespeaks some latent error, some radical defect in the plan, or principle of investigation.
To point out that defect, which the writer fancies he has discovered, is the object of the present attempt; whether he be right or wrong, the reader must decide. The traveller who mistakes his road, only goes the farther astray the more he prolongs his journey. So the commentator on prophecy, who labours to force the text to a sense which it was not intended to bear, the more learning and ingenuity he employs, the more he becomes involved in intricacy and obscurity.
In expounding the prophecies relating to the Jews, commentators have had chiefly in view their temporal and political state; whereas the writer conceives, that their moral and religious, that is, their spiritual condition, is really the main purport of those which relate to the restoration of Israel. Let any one read the description of the New Jerusalem in the 21st chapter of Revelations, and ask himself, if this can possibly apply to a literal city, or political state. It evidently cannot; and yet it must apply to some state of the Jews on earth; for the Messiah's kingdom is always described as a kingdom on earth; and, therefore, if the description does not apply to their temporal, it must to their spiritual condition... Continue reading book >>
