14, he speaks of the blessing of Abraham upon the Gentiles through Christ Jesus. Gal. iii. 8 and Acts iii. 25 render נברכו by ἐνευλογηθήσονται. The explanation, "they shall wish prosperity or happiness to each other," is destructive of the gradation, so evident in the fundamental passage,--blessing _for_, _on account of_, and _by_ Abraham; it cannot account for the constant, solemn repetition of this proclamation which everywhere appears as the _acme_ of the promises given to the Patriarch; it destroys the correspondence existing between this blessing upon all the families of the earth, and the curse which, after the fall, was inflicted upon the earth; it does away with the contrast, so clearly marked, between the union of the families of the earth effected by the blessing, and their dispersion, narrated in chap. xi.; it demolishes the connection existing between the prophecy of Japheth's dwelling in the tents of Shem (ix. 27), on the one hand, and the Ruler proceeding from Judah, to whom shall be the obedience of the nations (xlix. 10), on the other; and it severs all the necessary connecting links which unite these prophecies with one another. Another attempt to deprive this promise of its Messianic character--that, namely, made by _Bertholdt_ (_de ortu theol. Vet. Hebr._ p. 102) and others, who would have us to understand, by the families and nations of the earth, the Canaanitish nations--does not require any minute examination, as the weakness of these productions of rationalistic tendency are so glaringly manifest. Footnote 1: _Herder_ says, in his _Briefe das Studium der Theol._ betr. ii. S. 278: "If, in Abraham's descendants, all the nations of the earth were to be blessed, Abraham might and should have conceived of this blessing in all its generality, so that everything whereby his nation deserved well of the nations of the earth, was implied in it. If, then, Christ also belongs to the number of those noble individuals who deserved so well, the blessing refers to Him, not _indirectly_, but _directly_; and if Christ be the chief of all this number, it then most directly, and in preference to all others, refers to Him;--although, in this germ, Abraham did not distinctly perceive His person, did not, nor could, except by special revelation, in this bud, so plainly discover the full growth of His merits." Footnote 2: Even in this he was preceded by _Lampe_, who remarks: "Christ had spoken of seeing the day; the Jews speak about seeing the person. He had spoken of Abraham's seeing; they speak of Christ's seeing." [Pg 57] THE BLESSING OF JACOB UPON JUDAH. (Gen. xlix. 8-10.)