Apologeticae sive Theologiae Fundamentalis, Tomus I: Demonstratio Christiana

1. To the first parents God promises a future liberator to be born from the human stock: "I will put enmities between thee [the serpent = the devil] and the woman, and thy seed and her seed; she [Hebr. text: it, i.e., the seed] shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait [crush] for her heel."¹ In other words: "O devil, thou hast made the sinning woman thy friend; but once friendship has been turned into enmity, I will bring it about that the woman's seed shall conquer thee, although that same seed itself shall also be wounded." It is not indeed expressly stated whether the "woman's seed" is a single person or a multitude; but since a multitude of an army cannot conquer without a leader, at least implicitly a liberator is promised, under whose leadership the devil shall be overcome.

2. After the flood Noah is marked out as the branch of the human stock that was to beget the savior: "Cursed be Chanaan",² Noah prays, "a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren. Blessed be Iahve, the God of Sem; let Chanaan be his servant. May God enlarge Japheth, and may he dwell in the tents of Sem, and let Chanaan be his servant." Chanaan receives the curse, Sem and Japheth the blessing. The blessing of Sem consists in this, that Iahve will be with Sem in a peculiar manner: God will manifest himself as Iahve in the stock of Sem, or will enter into a covenant with the stock of Sem. The blessing of Japheth consists in natural enlargement, and also in this, that he will have a share in the goods promised to Sem, i.e., in the divine covenant made with Sem. That this is the genuine meaning of Noah's prophecy is clearly shown by the following prophecies. For of all the descendants of Sem, Abraham is chosen as the heir of the messianic promise.

3. To Abraham the people is designated from which the Messiah was to proceed: "And the Lord said to Abram: Go forth out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and out of thy father's house, and come into the land which I shall shew thee. And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and magnify thy name, and thou shalt be blessed. I will bless them that bless thee, and in thee shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed."³ The blessing that shall descend from Abraham upon all nations cannot be understood as temporal. For not only could all nations obtain a temporal blessing in the seed of Abraham, but in fact Abraham himself had heard from God that other nations were to be afflicted temporally by his seed.⁴ Hence all peoples will have a spiritual blessing in the seed of Abraham. From Abraham the blessing shall descend to Isaac,⁵ and from Isaac to Jacob.

4. Jacob designates the people that was to bring the messianic blessing: "I am the Lord Iahve of Abraham thy father and the Iahve of Isaac... In thee and in thy seed all the tribes of the earth shall be blessed. And I will be thy keeper whithersoever thou shalt go."⁶ Thence, after Jacob's name was changed⁷ to Israel (i.e., wrestler of God), the Lord, through the prophet Balaam, foretells even more expressly that from the Israelite people there would arise after a long time a leader and king who was to fulfil the promises made to the patriarchs and most powerfully increase the glory of the house of Jacob.⁸ Balaam describes this greatest king under the image of a star and a sceptre: "I shall see him, but not now: I shall behold him, but not nigh. A star shall rise out of Jacob and a sceptre shall spring up from Israel."⁹ When the people of Jacob, or Israel, was divided into twelve tribes:

5. To Judah the tribe is determined from which the messianic leader was to proceed. For while Jacob, at the point of death, discloses to each of his sons his future lot, he prophesies to Judah a singular power, victory over his enemies, and kingship among his brethren.¹⁰ Then Jacob adds with weight: "The sceptre shall not be taken away from Juda, nor a ruler from his thigh, till he come that is to be sent, and he shall be the expectation of nations."¹¹¹²

"The sceptre (schebet) shall not be taken away from Juda",¹³ i.e., the royal symbol shall not fail Juda. With this hemistich the other is wholly in accord: "And the ruler (mechokek) from his thigh", or, as it seems it should be read from the Hebrew, "and the staff from between his feet", i.e., the insignia of government, which oriental princes used to have placed between their feet on the occasion of an audience. "Till he come that is to be sent (shilo)";¹⁴ or "till peace come" or "the prince of peace", or "till he come to whom it [the sceptre] belongs"¹⁵ or simply "till the Messiah come".¹⁶ "And he shall be the expectation (jikehat) of the nations" or "to him shall be the obedience of the nations".

However the text be read, Jacob certainly foretold that the hegemony of government over the people of Israel would remain with the tribe of Judah, until there come the king of Israel κατ' ἐξοχήν, who will subject all nations to his kingdom. No one fails to see that here it is a question of the Messiah born of the tribe of Judah.

6. At last the family of David is chosen, which was to beget the Messiah. The tribe of Judah already enjoyed a certain pre-eminence¹⁷ in the desert, inasmuch as it surpassed the other tribes in number¹⁸ and held the first place on the march.¹⁹ Judah was twice leader in war.²⁰ But the tribe of Judah obtained royal power through David.²¹ That the Messiah would be the offspring of this royal stock God promises to David himself already clearly enough²² and afterwards repeatedly declares through the prophets. Scarcely had Jeremiah announced the extinction of the political dynasty of the house of David when he says of the future Messiah: "Behold the days come, saith the Lord, and I will raise up to David a just branch: and a king shall reign, and shall be wise, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. In those days shall Juda be saved, and Israel shall dwell confidently: and this is the name that they shall call him: The Lord our Just One."²³ Isaiah prefixes to his magnificent description of the messianic age these words concerning the origin of the Messiah: "And there shall come forth a rod out of the root of Jesse (the father of David), and a flower shall rise up out of his root, and the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him."²⁴²⁵

In fact Jesus traced his origin from the family of David, as the gospels again testify,²⁶ and St. Paul likewise confirms: "Be mindful that the Lord Jesus Christ is risen again from the dead, of the seed of David."²⁷ In him, therefore, all the prophecies concerning the genealogy of the Messiah were fulfilled. There follow the prophecies bearing on the chronology of the Messiah, fulfilled in Jesus Christ.