nt, and that the
agreement of the name of the town with the name which Christ has in
Isaiah, appears to him only as a remarkable outward representation of
the close connection of prophecy and fulfilment; just as, indeed, every
thing in the life of Christ appears to be brought about by the special
direction of Divine providence.

2. The phrase [Greek: hoti klethesetai] likewise is explained from the
circumstance that Matthew does not restrict himself to the passage Is.
xi. 1, but takes in, at the same time, all those other passages which
have a similar meaning. From among them, it was from Zech. vi. 12:
"Behold a man whose name is the Sprout," that the phrase [Greek: hoti
klethesetai] flowed. There is hence no necessity for explaining this
circumstance solely from the custom of the later Jews,[3] of claiming
as the names of the Messiah all those expressions by which, in the Old
Testament, His nature is designated, inasmuch as, in doing so, they
followed the custom of the prophets themselves, who frequently bring
forward as the name of the Messiah that which is merely one of His
attributes. This hypothesis is inadmissible, because otherwise it would
be difficult to point out any case in which the Evangelists had not
admixed something of their own with a quotation which they announced as
a literal one.

[Pg 113]

Ver. 2. "_And the Spirit of the Lord resteth upon Him, the Spirit of
wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit
of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord._"

The Spirit of the Lord is the general, the principle; and the
subsequent terms are the single forms in which he manifests himself,
and works. But, on the other hand, in a formal point of view, the
Spirit of the Lord is just co-ordinate with the Spirit of wisdom, &c.
Some, indeed, explain: the Spirit of God, who is the Spirit of, &c.;
but that this is inadmissible appears with sufficient evidence from
the circumstance that, by such a view, the sacred number, seven,
is destroyed, which, with evident intention, is completed in the
enumeration; compare the _seven_ spirits of God in Rev. i. 4. To have
the Spirit is the necessary condition of every important and effective
ministry in the Kingdom of God, from which salvation is to come forth;
comp. Num. xxvii. 18. It is especially the blessed administration of
the regal office which depends upon the possession of the Spirit; comp.
1 Sam. xvi. 13 ff. where it is said of David: "And Samu