Preface -Malachi to Christ

Malachi to Christ
PREFACE

Throughout this presentation we have endeavored to keep in mind three main objects:

Personal Study
First, this work should not be regarded as a history, but as a personal study. This mode of preparation allowed us to cover the subjects treated. In the case of developing a brief consideration of the history from Malachi to Christ, the form of personal study, while avoiding the necessity of a continuous narrative, enabled us to select portions which seemed susceptible to fresh illustration and combination, while at the same time hopefully stimulating an intelligent consideration of the whole. Further, there already exists a variety of outstanding historical narratives.

Historical
Second, although for these reasons we have abstained from an attempt to present a consecutive history, we hope to present the main characters and events of the Malachi to Christ narrative in a form as nearly historical as the facts of the case (as well as our ability to discern them) will allow. Although abstaining from attempting to write an historical approach, still, we have sought to maintain the distinction which good taste, no less than reverence, will always endeavor to preserve between the Jewish and other histories. Even in dealing with the Greek and Roman times, we must beware of an excessive reaction against the whole system of nomenclature. An indiscriminate introduction of modern associations into the ancient or the sacred world is almost as misleading as their entire seclusion. But we shall be best preserved from such dangers by a true understanding of the actual events, persons, and countries of which we profess to speak.

Ecclesiastical
Thirdly, our intention is to make this study strictly "ecclesiastical." The history of the Jewish race, language, and antiquities belongs to other studies. However, we have sought to especially dwell on those parts of the history which bear directly on the religious development of the nation. We have never forgotten that the literature of the Hebrew race, from which much of the materials of this study are drawn, is also the Bible – the sacred Book, or Books, of Christendom. Throughout this study, whenever opportunity is offered, we have endeavored to remind both ourselves and others that the Lord's church sprang from the Jews and therefore we should be thankful for any history that connects the two together, both by way of contrast and illustration. The desire to find in all parts of the Old Testament allegories or types of the New has been pushed to such an excess that many students simply turn away from this side of the history – often in disgust. But there is a continuity of character running through the career of the Chosen People which cannot be disputed – on this the true historical basis of "types" (which is, in fact, only the Greek word for "likeness") we have not hesitated to dwell. Though our basic subject is the period of time from Malachi to Christ, still, we have sought to recognize the identity of purpose, the constant gravitation toward the greatest of all events, which, under any hypothesis, must furnish the main interest of the history of Israel.

Conclusion
It has already been observed that our basic plan in this study is to include some great events during the period of time from Malachi to Christ – great events which are as certainly the climax of Jewish church history as they are the beginning history of the Lord's church. In former times the Jewish historian passed over the incidents of the Gospel narratives as if they had never occurred; the Jewish pilgrim visited the Mount of Olives with no other remark than that it was the spot on which had been solemnized the sacrifice of the red heifer. And, in like manner, the Christian historian took no heed of the influences of Socrates and Alexander, hardly of the Maccabees or the Rabbis. Yet these influences were unquestionably preludes of the "one far-off Divine event" toward which the whole of this period was moving, with a motion likened to the rapids of Niagara long before they reach the majestic Falls, likened to the close of the fifteenth century toward the Reformation, or of the eighteenth toward the French Revolution.

It was a saying of Scotus Erigena that whatever is true Philosophy is also true Theology. In like manner, on a large scale, whatever is true History teaches true Religion, and every attempt to reproduce the ages which immediately preceded or which accompanied the advent of Christianity is a contribution, however humble, to the understanding of Christianity itself. The manifold short-comings of this study are a sufficient warning not to indulge so precarious and so arduous an expectation. Yet, it is a hope which, having its roots in the memory of a past never to be forgotten, may perchance, carry with it in some shape its own fulfillment. It is a hope founded in the conviction that ae study of the highest and purest elements of Religion will, though in different forms, repay both the patient consideration of the speculative inquirer and the reverential search for strength and consolation amid the sorrows and perplexities of life and death. We are sure that whatever we have known of good or great can never be wholly taken from our possession. We trust that whatever is or has been the best and greatest is altogether imperishable and Divine.