Mediator

Mediator a person who intervenes between two parties at variance, in order to reconcile them. The term does not occur in the Old Test., but the idea is contained in that' remarkable passage (Job 9:33) which is rendered in the AuthVers. "Neither is there any daysman betwixt us, that might lay his hand upon' us both." The Hebrew words are, יָדוֹ עִלאּשׁנֵינוּ לאֹ יֵשׁאּבֵּינֵינוּ מוֹכַיחִ יָשֵׁת; literally, " There is not between us a reprover he shall place his hand upon us both." This the Sept. translates, or rather paraphrases, εἴθε ἡν ὁ μεσίτης ἡμῶν, καὶ ἐλέγχων, καὶ διακούων ἀναμέσον ἀμφοτέρων. See DAYSMAN. In the New Test. it is the invariable rendering of μεσίτης, a word which is rather rare in classical Greek- Polybius and Lucian being, it would appear, nearly the only classical authors who employ it (see Robinson, N.T. Lex. s.v.). Its meaning, however, is not difficult to determine. This seems evidently to be, qui medio inter duo stat — he who takes a middle position between two parties, and principally with the view of removing their differences. Thus Suidas paraphrases the word by μεσέγγος. and also by ἐγγυητής, μέσος δύο μερῶν. In the Sept. the word appears to occur only once, namely, in the above passage of Job.

1. It is used, in an accommodated sense, by many of the ancient fathers, to denote one who intervenes between two dispensations. Hence it is applied by them to John the Baptist, because he came, as it were, between the Mosaic and Christian dispensations. Thus Greg. Nazianzen (Orat. xxxix, p. 633) calls him ὁ παλαιᾶς καὶ νέας μεσίτης. Theophylact, commenting on Matthew iii, gives him the same denomination.

2. Again, it signifies, in its more proper sense, an internuncius, or ambassador, one who stands as the channel of communication between two contracting parties. Thus most commentators think that the apostle Paul, in Ga 3:19, calls Moses mediator, because he conveyed the expression of God's will to the people, and reported to God their wants, wishes, and determinations. In reference to this passage of Scripture, Basil (De -Spiritu Sancto, cap. xiv), says, "Mosen figuram representasse quando inter Deum et populum intermedius extiterit." Many ancient and modern divines, however, are of opinion that Christ himself, and not Moses, is here meant by the apostle, and this view would seem to be confirmed by comparing De 33:2 with Ac 7:38-52. Christ it was who, surrounded by angelic spirits, communicated with Moses on Mount Sinai. On this point, the words of the learned and pious Chrysostom, on Galatians 3, are very express: "Here," says he, " Paul calls Christ Mediator, declaring thereby that he existed before the law, and that by' him the law was revealed." This application of the passage will be the more evident if we consider the scope of the apostle's argument, which evidently is to point out the dignity of the law. How could he present a clearer demonstration of this than by showing that it was the second person of the ever blessed Trinity who stood forth on the mount to communicate between God the Father and his creature man! Moreover, to contradistinguish Christ's mediation from that of Moses, the former is emphatically styled μεσίτης κρείττονος διαθήκης (Heb 8:6). This, however, implies that Moses was the mediator of the former covenant, and Eadie, in his Commentary on Galatians (ad loc.), shows at length that this is the meaning of the passage, in opposition to all other views. Moses is likewise often styled סִרסוּר, or mediator, in the rabbinical writings (see Schottgen and Wetstein, ad loc.). But bethis as it may, far more emphatically and officially