The Holy One in Psalm 16, 10

Abstract

AccORDING to the traditional view, the coming of Christ is predicted by the Old Testament prophets. But the alleged Messianic prophecies, as well as the so-called eschatological passages, have, as a rule, a definite historical background. Professor Haupt says in the notes to his new metrical translation of the Book of Micah,There are no Messianic prophecies in the Old Testament, nor are there any Messianic psalms referring to Christ. We find Messianic prophecies both in Egypt and Babylonia,2 and Eduard Meyer thinks that the ancient Egyptian prophecies are the prototypes of the Messianic prophecies in the Old Testament. He has discussed this question on pp. 451-455 of his work Die Israeliten und ihre Nachbarstarmne, also in ? 297 of the new edition of the first volume of his Geschichte des Altertums (Stuttgart, 1909). One of the most important of the so-called Messianic Psalms is Psalm 16, which is referred to Christ in the second chapter of the Acts of the Apostles. We read there that Peter said on the day of Pentecost: My brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David; you know he died and was buried. Therefore, when he said, Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt Thou suffer Thy Holy One to see corruption, he cannot have spoken of himself, but only of the resurrection of Christ (Acts 2, 29-31). Like the modern higher critics, the Apostle deviates here from the traditional interpretation, but the quotation, Thou qvilt not suffer Thy Holy One to see corruption, is not based on the Hebrew text, but on the Septuagintal mistranslation of this passage, o%8e 8&*-ets