Or else—the entrance into Jerusalem and the question of the High Priest have not been rightly and historically understood. Was the ovation offered to the messianic pretendant? Did the High Priest in his question give utterance to something which all knew? Did he deduce the claim of messiahship from Jesus’ life, activity, and speech?—or did he perhaps learn through betrayal the innermost secret of Jesus, which since Cæsarea Philippi was known only to his trusted intimates? The problem of Jesus’ messiahship in all its difficulty may be formulated as follows: How was it possible that Jesus knew himself as the Messiah from the beginning, and yet to the very last moment did not give in his public preaching any intimation of his messiahship? How could it in the long run remain hidden from the people that these speeches were uttered out of a messianic consciousness? _Jesus was a Messiah who during his public ministry would not be one, did not need to be, and might not be, for the sake [pg 135] of fulfilling his mission! It is thus that history puts the problem._ 2. Jesus Is Elijah through His Solidarity with the Son of Man. _What character could and must the people ascribe to Jesus on the ground of his public ministry?_ That is the question with which we have now to do. The Messiah and the messianic Kingdom belong inseparately together. Hence if Jesus had preached a present messianic Kingdom, it would have been at the same time incumbent upon him to indicate the Messiah,—he would have had to begin by legitimating himself as the Messiah before the people. The fact is, however, that he preached a future kingdom. With this the possibility was completely excluded that any one could suppose him to be the Messiah. _If the Kingdom was future, so also was the Messiah._ If Jesus nevertheless had messianic pretensions, this thought was thoroughly remote from the people, for his preaching of the Kingdom excluded even the least conjecture of the sort. Hence even the cries of the demons did not avail to put the people on the right track. [pg 136] Conjectures of that sort were rendered completely impossible by the way in which Jesus spoke of the Messiah in the third person and as a character of the future. He intimated to the Disciples as he sent them upon their mission that the Son of Man would appear before they had gone through all the cities of Israel (Mt 10:23). In Mk 8:38 he gave promise to the people of the speedy appearing of the Son of Man for judgment and the coming of the Kingdom of God with power. In the same way at Jerusalem he still spoke of the judgment which the Son of Man will hold when he appears in his glory surrounded by the angels (Mt 25:31).