Abrahamic FaithTHE
IDENTITY OF THE JEWISH MESSIAH REVEALED
The following study will be a
comparison between the concept of Messiah as outlined in the Hebrew Scriptures
and that of the Christian New Testament documents. The purpose of this
exposition will be to expound upon the Jewish teaching on Messiah in contrast
with that of Christianity. The Hebrew Bible gives a clear outline as to who,
what, where and how the Messiah will appear. For this reason, we begin with an
examination of the Hebrew Scriptures in order to see if whether the Tanakh
supports the fact that the Messiah of God is both divine and human, one Person
having two natures. We will also examine the Hebrew Bible for the evidence that
the Messiah would not only reign as king, but also die a substitutionary death
on behalf of sinners, making atonement for sin. As this is being done, we will
see if Jesus fits the outline of Messiah presented to us in the Hebrew Bible.
Messiah would be the LORD
God
Isaiah 9:6
"For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will
be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father,
Prince of Peace."
This verse points out the
inescapable fact that the Messiah is God Almighty appearing in human
form. That this passage was considered Messianic is evident from the fact that
verse7 says that the Child would sit on the throne of David forever, a
description which only fits the Messiah.
In the Targum of Isaiah we
read:
"His name has been called
from old, Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, He who lives forever, the
Anointed One (Messiah), in whose days peace shall increase upon us."
Pereq Shalom:
R. Yose the Galilean said:
"The name of the Messiah is Peace, for it is said, "Everlasting Father,
Prince of Peace."
Midrash Mishle, S. Buber
edition:
The Messiah is called by
eight names: Yinnon, Tzemah, Pele ["Miracle"], Yo'etz ["Counselor"], Mashiah
["Messiah"], El ["God"], Gibbor ["Hero"], and Avi 'Ad Shalom ["Eternal
Father of Peace"]
Whoever this Child is one
thing remains certain. This Child must shine forth from Galilee according to
Isaiah 9:1:
“Nevertheless, there will be
no more gloom for those who were in distress. In the past He humbled the land
of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali but in the future He will honor
Galilee of the Gentiles, by the way of the sea along the
Jordan...”
In an attempt to avoid the
impact of this passage’s significance to the divinity of the Messiah, certain
Jewish Publications have translated it in a way as to suggest that the divine
titles are not messianic in nature. Rather, they are descriptions of God:
“For a child has been born
to us, a son has been given to us, and the dominion will rest on his shoulder;
the Wondrous Adviser, Mighty God, eternal Father, called his name Sar-shalom
[Prince of peace].” (This appears as Isaiah 9:5 in the Stone Edition
Tanakh, Arts Scroll Series, published by Mesorah Publications Ltd.; Brooklyn,
NY, 1998)
The great rabbi Ibn Ezra
responds:
“There are some interpreters
who say that ‘wonderful, counselor, mighty God, everlasting Father’ are the
names of God, and that only ‘prince of peace’ is the name of the child. But
according to my view, the right interpretation is that they are all the
names of the child.” (Walter Riggans, Yeshua Ben David [Wowborough,
East Sussex; MARC, 1995], p. 370)
Still other rabbis saw Isaiah
9:6-7 as referring to Hezekiah, Ahaz’s son, who they believed was the Messiah:
“Rabbi Hillel maintained,
Israel cannot expect a Messiah any longer for they already enjoyed him in the
time of king Hezekiah.” Sanhedrin 99a
Yet, Hillel’s colleagues
disagreed with him:
“May God pardon Hillel,
since he contradicts God’s prophet Zechariah [who came centuries after
Hezekiah] who says, ‘Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout O daughter of
Jerusalem; Behold thy king cometh unto thee...” (cited by Rachmiel Frydland,
What the Rabbis Know About the Messiah- A Study of Genealogy and Prophecy
[Cincinnati Ohio; Messianic Publishing Co., 1993], p. 39)
Sanhedrin 94a states:
“’Of the increase of his
government and peace there shall be no end’ (Isa. 9:7). One may ask why in the
Hebrew in the first word lemarmbe the letter mem, though in the
middle of the word, is written as a final mem? The answer is that the
Holy, blessed be He, considered the possibility of making Hezekiah Messiah...”
Rachmiel Frydland comments:
“The passage goes on to
imply that Hezekiah was not the Messiah, and it explains that the closed
mem signifies that the decision concerning Messiah was closed for now and
postponed to another time.” (Ibid, p. 40)
Rachmiel continues to say in
relation to the prophecy of Isaiah 7:14 that a young virgin maiden would
conceive a child named Immanuel- “God with us”:
“RASHI also came to the
conclusion that the Immanuel prophecy could not refer to Hezekiah, because
‘if you count up the years of Hezekiah you will find that Hezekiah was born
nine years before his father [Ahaz] ascended the throne.’ Hence, Hezekiah
was born nine years before the prophecy was given, and yet the prophet says:
‘Behold the virgin shall (future tense) conceive...’ ” (Ibid., p. 40)
In fact, according to
Frydland’s footnote 29:
“RASHI actually expected the
Messiah to appear in 1352 C.E., or 1478 C.E. Abba Hillel Silver, Messianic
Speculation in Israel (Macmillan 1972), pp. 66-67.” (Ibid., p. 42)
More about Rashi later.
Jeremiah 23:5-6
“'The days are coming,'
declares the Lord, 'When I will raise up to David a righteous Branch, a king
who will reign wisely and do what is just and right in the land. In His days
Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety. This is the name by which
He will be called; The Lord our Righteousness (YHVH Tseidkeynu).'”
The Targums concluded that
this passage was speaking of Messiah. For instance, the great Rabbi David Kimchi
wrote in reference to this verse, “By the righteous Branch is meant Messiah.”
The compilers of the Targum
agreed with Kimchi since they introduced Messiah by name in this passage. (David
Baron, Rays of Messiah’s Glory: Christ in the Old Testament [Grand
Rapids, MI; Zondervan, 1886], p. 78)
Hebrew scholar Alfred
Edersheim quotes other Rabbinic writings in reference to this passage:
“On Jer. xxiii, 5, 6 the
Targum has it: ‘And I will raise up for David the Messiah the just.’
This is one of the passages from which, according to Rabbinic views, one of
the names of the Messiah is derived, viz.: Jehovah our Righteousness.
So in the Talmud (Babha Bathra 75b), in the Midrash on Ps. xxii.1,
Prov.xix.21, and in that on Lamentations I 16.” (Edersheim, Life and
Times of Jesus the Messiah [Grand Rapids, MI; Eerdmans, 1972], pt.
2, p. 731).
Hence, we find the Hebrew
Scriptures testifying to the fact that Messiah would be the Lord Himself.
(Hebrew YHVH/ Adonai)
Messiah would be the Son of
God
Psalm 2:7-8
"I will proclaim the decree of
the Lord: He said to me, 'You are My Son; Today I have begotten thee. Ask of me
and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your
possession.' "
The above passage tells us
that the Messiah would be the Son of God. This fact is also related in the
Talmud, Sukkah 52a, Soncino translation:
"Our Rabbis taught, the Holy
One blessed be He, will say to the Messiah, the Son of David (may He
reveal Himself speedily in our days), 'Ask of Me and I will give to Thee,' as
it is said [Psalm 2:7-8]: 'I will tell of the decree; the Lord hath said unto
Me, "Thou art My Son; This day I have begotten Thee, ask of Me and I will give
the nations for thy inheritance." ' "
The Midrash reaffirms the view
that Messiah is God’s Son when commenting on another messianic Psalm:
“Rabbi Nathan said that God spoke to Israel saying, ‘As I made Jacob firstborn, for it is written “Israel is My son, even My firstborn" (Exodus 4:22), So also will I make Messiah My firstborn as it is written, " I will make Him My firstborn.”’” (Commentary on Psalm 89:27 taken from Midrash Rabbah Shebot 19)
Micah 5:1
"But thou Bethlehem Ephratha, which art little to be among the thousands of Judah, out of thee shall One come forth unto Me that is to be Ruler in Israel; whose goings forth are from old, from Ancient of Days."
This verse emphatically states
that Messiah would be born in Bethlehem while also having been existing from
eternity.
The Targum Jonathan (second
century A. D.) views this as a messianic prophecy :
“And You Bethlehem Ephrath,
you who were too small to be numbered among the thousands of the house of
Judah, From you shall come forth before Me The Messiah, to exercise
dominion over Israel, He whose name was mentioned from before, from the Days
of Creation.”
“Listen, O high priest
Joshua (Heb.- Yeshua) and your associates seated before you, who
are men symbolic of things to come: I am going to bring my servant, the
Branch. See, the stone I have set in front of Joshua! There are seven eyes
on that stone, and I will engrave an inscription on it,’ says the LORD
Almighty, ‘and I will remove the sin of this land in a single day.’”
Zechariah 3:8-9 NIV
“The word of the LORD came
to me: ‘Take silver and gold from the exiles Heldai, Tobijah, and Jedaiah, who
arrived from Babylon. Go the same day to the house of Josiah son of Zephaniah.
Take the silver and gold and make a crown, and set it on the head of the
high priest, Joshua son of Jehozadak. Tell him this is what the LORD
Almighty says: “Here is the man whose name is the Branch and he will branch
out from his place and build the temple of the LORD. It is he who will
build the temple of the LORD, and he will be clothed with majesty and will
sit on his throne. And he will be a priest on his throne. And there will be
harmony between the two.” ’” Zechariah 6:9-13 NIV
Joshua is portrayed as a type
of the Messiah who was to come. Hence, just as Joshua is pictured as being both
a priest and king, the Messiah would also be a priest who reigns on God’s throne
as king. In fact, the name “Joshua” is the same Hebrew name for “Jesus”, Yeshua!
The fact that these passages are clearly messianic in nature can be seen in the
title given to the one to come, i.e. the Branch. The rabbis universally have
held that this title refers to the Messiah-King.
Another passage indicating
that the Messiah would be both priest and king is Psalm 110:1, 4:
“The LORD said to my Lord:
‘Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet’…
The LORD has sworn and will not change his mind: ‘You are a priest forever,
in the order of Melchizedek.’ “ NIV
In fact, David’s sons were
also called priests:
“David reigned over all
Israel, doing what was just and right for all his people. Joab son of Zeruiah
was over the army; Jehosphat son of Ahilud was recorder; Zadok son of Ahitud
and Ahimelech son of Abiathar were priests; Seraiah was secretary; Beniaha son
of Jehoiada was over the Kerethites and Pelethites; and David’s sons were
priests (cohanim).” 2 Samuel 8:15-18
Since the Messiah is David’s
son, this would indicate that he too would be a priest much like his ancestors
that preceded him.
Messiah would suffer
While the Hebrew Scripture
portrays the Messiah as a glorious King as well as both a human and divine
figure, the Bible also indicates that He will suffer and be put to death only to
rise miraculously:
Isaiah 52:13-53:12
“See my servant will act
wisely; he will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted. Just as there were
many who were appalled at him - his appearance was disfigured beyond that of any
man and his form marred beyond human likeness - so will he sprinkle many
nations, and kings will shut their mouths because of him. For what they were not
told, they will see, and what they have not heard, they will understand.
Who has believed our message
and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
He grew up before him like a
tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to
attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
He was despised and rejected
by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men
hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
Surely he took up our
infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God,
smitten by him, and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our
transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that
brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.
We all, like sheep, have gone
astray, each of us has turned to his own way, and the LORD has laid on
him the iniquity of us all.
He was oppressed and
afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the
slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his
mouth.
By oppression and judgment he
was taken away. And who can speak of his descendants? For he was cut off from
the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was
stricken.
He was assigned a grave
with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence,
nor was any deceit in his mouth.
Yet it was the LORD’S will to
crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the LORD makes his life a guilt
offering, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of
the LORD will prosper in his hand.
After the suffering of his
soul, he will see the light of life and be satisfied; by his
knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their
iniquities.
Therefore I will give him a
portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because
he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors.
For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.”
Amazingly, this passage
declares the fact that the suffering servant is being crushed for the sins of
Isaiah’s people, eventually being put to death. Yet, vv. 10-11 emphatically
state that this servant would once more see “the light of life” and reign in
order to justify “his offspring and prolong his days,” and that “the will of the
LORD” will “prosper in his hand”.
This seems to imply a bodily
resurrection. The only way for the servant to be “assigned a grave with
the wicked and with the rich in his death” and then “see the light of
life” is if He were to be miraculously raised from the dead!
That this too was considered a
messianic prophecy becomes obvious when one reads the rabbinic commentaries.
However, in order to avoid the obvious Christian implications, rabbis such as
Rashi (Rabbi Solomon Izaak, circa 1040-1105 A. D.) referred this passage to the
sufferings of the nation of Israel, despite the fact that rabbis such as the
great Maimonides and Crispin thought it was wrong to apply this to Israel. They
rather maintained the belief that this passage of Scripture was about Messiah.
The reason for Rashi’s attempt to make Israel the central focus of this passage
was due to his seemingly anti-Christian bias, a fact to which he freely
admitted:
“Since Christians interpret
Isaiah 53 as being a prophecy concerning Jesus, we maintain that this is a
prophecy concerning the people of Israel.” (Steve Schwarz, “Dear Rabbi,”
p.15)
Rabbi Moishe Alshekh, famous
rabbinic scholar who lived in 16th century Sfat states: "Our Rabbis with one
voice, accept and affirm the opinion that the Prophet (Isaiah) is speaking of
King Messiah."
Furthermore, Rabbi R. Elyyah
de Vidas sights,
“The meaning of ‘he was
wounded for our transgressions, ... bruised for our iniquities’ is, that since
the Messiah bears our iniquities, which produce the effect of His being
bruised, it follows that whoever will not admit that the Messiah
suffers for our iniquities must endure and suffer for themselves.”
Ninth century poet, Eliazer
Hakalir, paraphrases Isaiah 53 in a prayer that comprises a part of some Jewish
sects’ traditional liturgical prayers recited on Yom Kippur (the Jewish Day of
Atonement). The prayer begins:
“We are shrunk up in our
misery even until now! Our Rock hath not come nigh to us; Messiah our
righteousness, hath turned from us; we are in terror, and there is none to
justify us! Our iniquities and the yoke of our transgressions He
will bear, for He was wounded for our transgressions; He will carry
our sins upon His shoulder, that we may find forgiveness for our iniquities;
and by his strips we are healed ...” (Baron, Rays of Messiah’s Glory,
pp. 225-230)
Midrash Tanhuma and Yalkut,
vol. 2, par. 338 on Isaiah 52:13 states that the expressions "exalted, and
extolled and be very high" indicates that,
“Messiah shall be more
exalted than Abraham... more extolled than Moses... and be very
high; that is higher than the ministering angels...”
This again demonstrates that
Isaiah 52:13-53:12 was viewed by rabbis as a messianic prophecy.
Also:
“… the weight of Jewish
authority preponderates in favor of the Messianic interpretation of this
chapter… that until recent times this prophecy has been almost universally
received by Jews as referring to Messiah is evident from Targum Jonathan who
introduces Messiah by name in chp. LII.13; from the Talmud (Sanhedrin
vol. 98b); and from the Zohar... In fact, until Rabbi Rashi [Rabbi Solomon
Izaak (1040-1105)], considered the originator of the modern school of Jewish
interpretation], who applied it to the Jewish nation, the Messianic
interpretation of this chapter was almost universally adopted by Jews..."
(Baron, Rays of Messiahs Glory, pp. 225-229)
Interestingly, Isaiah 53 is
almost never read in the synagogues, as it is consistently neglected during the
Haftorah readings. This is amazing in light of the fact that the chapters
preceding and following Isaiah 53 are recited during these special readings. The
following list illustrates this point:
Haftorah for Ekeb - Isaiah 49:14-51:3
Haftorah for Shofetim - Isaiah 51:12-52:12
Haftorah for Noah - Isaiah 54:1-55:5
Haftorah for Sephardi ritual - Isaiah 54:1-10
Haftorah for Hi Tetze - Isaiah 54:1-10
Haftorah for Re’eh - Isaiah
54:11-55:5
Herbert Lowe, a Cambridge
University Rabbinics Professor notes:
“Quotations from the famous
53rd chapter of Isaiah are rare in the Rabbinic literature. Because
of the Christological interpretation given to the chapter by Christians, it is
omitted from the series of prophetical lessons (HAFTORAH) for the Deuteronomy
Sabbaths. The omission is deliberate and striking.” (Schwarz, “Dear
Rabbi,” p.16)
It should also be pointed out
that the Haftorah readings are the same throughout synagogues and temples all
over the world.
(NOTE- There is evidence that
the servant of Isaiah 53 was believed to be referring to national Israel by the
Jews even before Rashi. The Church Father Origen writes:
“I remember that once in a
discussion with some whom the Jews regard as learned I used these prophecies.
At this the Jews said that these prophecies referred to the whole people as
though of a single individual, since they were scattered in the
dispersion and smitten, that as a result of the scattering of the Jews
among other nations many might become proselytes.” [Origen, Contra Celsum,
I., p. 55 A.D. 248]
Hence, Rashi was seemingly not
the first rabbi that tried to apply Isaiah 53 to national Israel.)
Zechariah 12:10
"And I will pour out on the
house of David and the inhabitants of Israel a spirit of grace and
supplication. They will look to Me, the One they have pierced, and
mourn for Him as one mourns for an only child and grieve bitterly for
Him as one grieves for a firstborn Son."
An astonishing prophecy
indeed! God claims that they will personally pierce Him. Yet, at the same time
God refers to the pierced One as someone that is personally distinct from Him
for whom the nations mourn and weep as for a firstborn Son. This prophecy is
confirmed by the Rabbis to be referring to the other “Messiah” which the Talmud
calls Messiah Ben Joseph, the suffering Messiah. (T.V. Moore, Zechariah,
Haggai and Malachi [Carlisle, PA; Banner of Truth Trust, 1974],
p.199)
Edersheim states that this
prophecy “is applied to the Messiah the son of Joseph in the Talmud (Sukk.52a)
and so is verse 12…” (Edersheim, The Life and Times of Jesus the
Messiah, [one volume edition], p.737)
T.V. Moore substantiates
Edersheim’s statement by declaring:
“… the later interpreters
explaining it of Messiah Ben Joseph, or the suffering Messiah, whom they
invented to meet the passages of Scripture that speak so clearly of this
characteristic (i.e.,… the sufferings) of the promised redeemer. But as they
believed that this Messiah son of Joseph was a mere man, the difficulty met
them that Jehovah declared ‘they shall look on ME whom they have
pierced’, so that if it refers to the Messiah he cannot be a mere man, but
must be divine.” (Ibid., pp.199-200)
Rabbi Moshe Alshekh also
confirms the messianic overtones of this prophecy:
“I will do yet a thing, and
that is, that ‘they shall look unto me for they shall lift up their eyes unto
me in perfect repentance, when they see Him whom they have pierced’, that is
Messiah, the son of Joseph; for our Rabbis, of blessed memory, have said that
He will take upon Himself all the guilt of Israel, and shall then be slain in
the war to make atonement in such manner that it shall be accounted as if
Israel had pierced Him, for on account of their sin He has died; and
therefore, in order that it may be reckoned to them as a perfect atonement,
they will repent and look to the blessed One, saying, that there is none
beside Him to forgive those that mourn on account of Him who died for their
sin: this is the meaning of ‘they shall look upon me.’” (Schwarz, “Dear
Rabbi,” p.10)
The only person who ever
claimed to be both God and the Son of God, as well as being the only
self-professed Messiah that was pierced, was Jesus Christ. (cf. John 10:30; Mark
14:61b-62; Luke 24:44-47).
He is the only self-professed
Messiah to be born in Bethlehem and to come forth from Galilee. (cf. Matthew
2:1,22; Luke 2:4-7; Mark 1:9)
The life of Jesus the Messiah
is the only one that bears an amazing correlation to the Hebrew passages being
studied. An examination of Psalm 22 and the events surrounding the crucifixion
of Jesus as recorded in the New Testament solidifies this point:
Psalm 22
v. 1: "My God, My God
why have you forsaken me?"
compare- Matthew 27:46: "About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, 'Eloi, Eloi lama sabacthani?,' which means, 'My God, My God why have you forsaken Me?' "
"But I am a worm and not a
man, scorned by men and despised by people. All who see me mock me. They hurl
insults shaking their heads; 'He trusts in the Lord, let the Lord rescue
Him. Let Him deliver Him, since He delights in Him.'"
compare-
Matthew 27:41-44: "In the same
way the chief priests, the teachers of the Law and the Elders mocked Him. 'He
saved others.' they said, 'But He can't save Himself! He's the King of Israel!
Let Him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in Him. He trusts
in God, let God rescue Him now if He wants Him, for He said "I am the Son of God."
' In the same way the robbers who were crucified with Him also heaped insults
on Him."
"I am poured out like water,
and all my bones are out of joint, my heart has turned to wax; it has melted
away within me. My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my
tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth; you lay me in the dust of
death."
(NOTE- This is a precise
description of the crucifixion process where the hanging weight of a person's
body would eventually cause his bones to come out of joint, and would make him
as one lying in the "dust of death")
compare-
John 19:34: "Instead one of
the soldiers pierced Jesus' side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood
and water."
(NOTE - Medically the flow of blood and water would mean that the heart of the person had literally burst , i.e. had "turned to wax" and "melted away", in complete fulfillment of this verse of the Psalm!)
John 19:28: "Later, knowing
that all was completed, and so that the scripture may be fulfilled, Jesus said,
'I am thirsty.' "
"Dogs have surrounded me; a
band of evil men have encircled me; they have pierced (kaaru) my hands and
feet."
(NOTE - This prediction was
made when crucifixion did not even exist at the time!)
"I can count all my bones;
people stare and gloat over me. They have divided
my garments and cast lots for my clothing."
compare-
John 19:23-24: "When the
soldiers crucified Jesus, they took His clothes, dividing
them into four shares, one for each of them, with the
undergarment remaining. This garment was seamless, woven in one piece from top
to bottom. 'Let's not tear it,' they said to one another, 'let's
decide by lot who will get it.' "
Even more amazing still is the
fact that the Psalmist indicates that after suffering all this pain and torture
which eventually causes the sufferer to lie in "the dust of death", the sufferer
will then be able to proclaim the name of God in the sacred assembly:
"I declare your name to my
brothers; in the congregation I will praise You" (v. 22)
The only way for the sufferer
to die and yet give glory to God in front of his brethren is if he were to be
resurrected! Jesus Christ is the only man in history to have been raised from
the dead to immortal glory.
In fact, upon rising from the
dead Jesus proceeded to declare God's name to His unbelieving brethren who
became the Apostles that helped evangelize the world! Therefore, He is the only
one who has fulfilled this prophecy.
The Pesikta Rabbati, Piska 36:
1-2: affirms that Psalm 22 was viewed as a messianic prophecy:
"(At the time of the
Messiah's creation) the Holy One, blessed be He, will tell Him (Messiah)
in detail what will befall Him: There are souls that have been put
under My throne, and it is their sins which will bend Thee under a yoke of
iron and make thee like a calf whose eyes grow dim with suffering...
During the seven year period preceding the coming of the Son of David, iron
beams will be brought and loaded upon His neck until Messiah's body is bent
low... It was the ordeal of the Son of David that David wept, saying,
'My strength is dried up like a potsherd.'”
In refutation of certain
Jewish claims that Psalm 22:16 should more correctly read as lions (kaari),
instead of pierced (kaaru), we find this passage in the Yalkut
Shimoni (687):
"'Many dogs have encompassed me'- this refers to Haman's sons. 'The assembly of the wicked have enclosed me'- this refers to Ahasuerus and his crowd. 'Kaari my hands and feet'- Rabbi Nehemiah says, 'They have PIERCED my hands and feet in the presence of Ahasuerus.'”
(NOTE- It should be stated that the early Greek Septuagint [compiled nearly three centuries before the birth of Christ], Syriac and Latin versions of the Hebrew Scriptures all read “pierced.”)
Alfred Edersheim observed a
remarkable comment in Yalkut on Isaiah 60 which applies this passage in Psalm 22
to the Messiah, and uses almost the same words as the Gospel writers in
describing the mocking behavior of the surrounding crowds. (Edersheim, The
Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, p. 718)
This is a clear indication
that certain rabbis viewed Psalm 22 as a messianic prophecy.
This apparent paradox has
puzzled the Jews from the very beginning, since they could not understand how a
triumphant King-Messiah could suffer and die. As noted earlier, this paradox led
to the belief that there would be two distinct Messiahs to fulfill two distinct
roles; the Suffering-Messiah Ben Joseph, and King-Messiah Ben David.
Yet the truth is that there is
only Messiah, Yeshua ha-Mashiach whose mission has been to fulfill both these
roles. The first mission was to fulfill the role of the Suffering Servant, while
his role as reigning King is to be fulfilled at his Second Coming. (Cf. Matthew
24:27-35).
The Timeline of Messiah
Through the prophet Daniel we
receive a timeline of when Messiah would appear:
"Seventy sevens are
decreed for your people and the Holy city to finish transgression, to put
an end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness,
to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most Holy. Know and
understand this; from the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild
Jerusalem until the Anointed One (Messiah), the Ruler comes, there will be
Seven sevens and Sixty-two sevens. After the sixty-two ‘sevens,’
the Anointed One will be cut off and will have nothing. The people of the
ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come
like a flood: War will continue until the end, and desolations have been
decreed. " (Daniel 9:24-26)
Daniel is given the allotted
time for a) the decree of the rebuilding of both the city and the temple,
b) the time it would take for the Messiah to appear after this decree, as well
as c) the destruction of the temple and the termination of the Messiah’s life.
Several dates have been given
as a starting point for the period of time stated in the book of Daniel (7 * 7 =
49 + 62 * 7 = 434 - total = 483).
One such date is King Cyrus’s decree to rebuild the temple in 539 B. C. Yet, none of these dates are correct since the dates that are commonly given refer to the rebuilding of the temple, not the city. The prophecy clearly states that the time frame would begin only when the decree goes forth for the rebuilding of the city and its walls. The only decree that fits the context of the prophecy is that of Artaxerxes to Nehemiah in 444 B. C. (Nehemiah 2:1-8), since this decree included the restoration of the city and the city gates as well as its walls.
The following quotation from
the book “Evidence That Demands a Verdict” by Josh McDowell, helps illustrate
Daniel’s amazing timeline:
“If Daniel is correct, the
time from the edict to restore and rebuild Jerusalem (Nisan 1, 444B.C.) to the
coming of the Messiah to Jerusalem is 483 years (69 * 7), each year equaling the
Jewish prophetic year of 360 days (173,880). The terminal event of the 69 weeks
is the presentation of Christ Himself to Israel as the Messiah as predicted in
Zechariah 9:9. H. Hoehner, who has thoroughly researched this prophecy in Daniel
and the corresponding dates, calculates the date of this event:
‘Multiplying the
sixty-nine weeks by seven years for each week by 360 days gives a total of
173,880 days. The difference between 444B.C. and A.D.33 then is 476 solar
years. By multiplying 476 by 365.24219879 or by 365 days, 5 hours, 48
minutes, 45,975 seconds (there are 365 ¼ days in a year), one comes to
173,885 days, 6 hours, 52 minutes, 44 seconds, or 173,885 days. This leaves
only 25 days to be accounted for between 444B.C. and A.D.33. By adding the
25 days to March 5 (of 444B.C.), one comes to March 30 (of A.D.33) which was
Nisan 10 in A.D.33. This is the triumphant entry of Jesus into Jerusalem.’”
(McDowell, p. 173)
This prophecy once again
predicts Messiah’s brutal death:
"After the sixty-two
sevens, the Anointed One will be cut off (yikaret) and have nothing.
The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary
(temple)." (cf. Daniel 9:26)
The Hebrew term, yikaret,
implies a sudden, violent death. This is a precise description of Jesus’ brutal
death on the cross.
Another astonishing aspect
deals with the fact that the Temple was destroyed some forty years after
Christ's crucifixion; clearly fulfilling Daniel’s prediction of the "sanctuary"
being demolished right after the death of the Messiah!
Hence, Jesus must be the
Messiah since the prophecy clearly states that the Messiah must appear before
the destruction of the second Temple. The only person who fits the bill is Jesus
Christ, since He is the only one who claimed that his death was essential in
providing the atonement that was both necessary to usher in God’s everlasting
righteousness and to eradicate sin.
Furthermore, any denial of
Jesus’ messiahship is essentially a denial of Daniel’s authenticity as a
prophetic book since the condition of the prophecy rests upon the arrival of the
Messiah before the Temple’s destruction. Yet, if Jesus is not Messiah then
Daniel is proven to be a false prophet since the Temple has been destroyed and
the Messiah has not come.
Hence, once the weight of
historical occurrences and mathematical calculations is thrown behind the
prophecies of the Bible, it becomes increasingly impossible to deny the fact
that Jesus is the promised Messiah.
Additional confirmation of the
messianic overtones of Daniel 9:25-27 comes from the Talmud itself:
“In Daniel is delivered to
us the end [‘the time of His appearance and death’ - Rabbi Jarchi]
of the Messiah.” The Talmud also records that about the time of the Roman
general Titus’ destruction of the Temple (70 A. D.), the Messiah was believed
to have already come, yet His identity was concealed from the Jews until they
were rendered more worthy of His appearance!” (Frank Delitzch and Paton Gloag,
The Messiahship of Christ /The Messianic Prophecies of Christ
[Minneapolis, MN; Klock & Klock, 1983 rpt.], pt. 2, p. 226)
Rabbi Moses Abraham Levi
stated:
“I have examined the Holy
Scriptures, and have not found the time for the coming of the Messiah, clearly
fixed, except in the words of Gabriel to the prophet Daniel, which are
written in the ninth chapter of the prophecy of Daniel.”
Rabbi Azariah states in the
words of Daniel:
“To seal the vision and
prophecy, and to bring in Messiah our righteousness.”
Rabbi Nachmonides claims:
“This Holy of Holies is
the Messiah who is sanctified more than the sons of David.”
Finally, in the words of
Jonathan ben Uzziel:
“That the ‘vision and
prophecy’ may be fulfilled even unto Messiah, the Holy of the Holies.”
This again strengthens the
case for the messiahship of Jesus since He is the only person that both claimed
to be the suffering Messiah that was to die and who appeared before the year 70
AD.
In fact Rabbi Nehumias, who
lived 50 years before Christ, is cited as saying that the time given by
Daniel for the Messiah’s appearance could not go beyond fifty years! (Ibid.)
Another amazing fact is that
the Talmud admits that forty years prior to the destruction of the Temple, God
refused to accept the high priestly sacrifices:
“Our Rabbis taught that
throughout the forty years that Shim’on the Tzaddik served ... the
scarlet cloth would become white. From then on it would sometimes become white
and sometimes not ... Throughout the last forty years, before the
Temple was destroyed ... the scarlet cloth never turned white.” (Yoma
39a-39b)
Is it then a mere coincidence
that approximately forty years prior to the Temple’s destruction, Yeshua the
Messiah offered himself as the final and perfect sacrifice, making void all
other sacrifices offered up by the cohen ha-gadol (the high priest)?
The Talmud alludes to the
reason why God allowed the Temple to be destroyed:
“Why was the Second
Sanctuary destroyed, seeing that in its time they occupied themselves with
studying Torah, obeying mitzvot and practicing charity? Because
in it prevailed hatred without a cause.” (Yoma 9b)
This echoes Jesus’ very own
words as recorded in the Gospel of John:
“But now they (the Jewish
ruling council) have seen these miracles and yet they have hated both me and
my Father. But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law: ‘They hated
me without reason.’” John 15:24b-25
Thus, the evidence from the
rabbinic commentaries points to the same inescapable conclusion. Namely, that
Jesus of Nazareth is the prophesied Jewish Messiah.
To make the case for the
messiahship of Jesus that much stronger, we provide the additional prophecies
and their fulfillment in the life of Jesus, The first prophecy is from Genesis
49:10:
“The scepter shall
not depart from Judah, nor a Law-giver from between His feet
until Shiloh come.”
Targum Onkelos states:
“He who excerciseth dominion
shall not pass away from the house of Jehuda, nor the saphra from his
children’s children until the Messiah come.”
Additionally, the Targum
Jerusalem declares that,
“Kings shall not cease from
the house of Jehuda… until the time that the King Meshiha shall come…
How beauteous is the King Meshiha who is to arise from the house of Jehuda.”
Finally, the Targum Palestine
indicates:
“Kings shall not cease, nor
rulers from the house of Judah ... nor sapherim teaching the Law from his
seed, till the time that the King the Messiah shall come, who will
arise from Jehuda.”
In fact one of the names of
Messiah is Shiloh, a name derived from this very passage:
R. Johannan asked what was the
name of the Messiah; they of the school of R. Schilo answered, “His name is
Shiloh, according to that which is written, ‘until Shiloh come.’” (Sanhedrin
98b)
Thus, according to this
passage two things would take place following the appearance of the Messiah:
1. Removal of the scepter or identity of Judah.
2. Suppression of the judicial
power.
Although Israel suffered 70
years of captivity under Babylonian rule, it never ceased from having its
“tribal staff,” since they still had their own lawgivers and judges. (cf. Ezra
1:5, 8)
The removal of Judah’s scepter
came during the reign of Herod the Great who, having no Jewish blood, succeeded
the last reigning Jewish leaders in Jerusalem; the Maccabean princes of Judah.
Secondly, the legal right of
pronouncing death upon criminals was stripped away from the Jews in 7 AD.,
approximately 23 years before Christ’s crucifixion. This nullified their
judicial authority to execute lawbreakers. The Talmud itself admits this:
“… a little more than forty
years before the destruction of the Temple, the power of pronouncing capital
sentence was taken away from the Jews.” (Sanhedrin, Fol. 24, recto.)
The Jews realized the
significance and impact of the situation as Rabbi Rachmon notes:
“When the members of the
Sanhedrin found themselves deprived of their right over life and death, a
general consternation took possession of them; they covered their heads with
ashes, and their bodies with sackcloth, exclaiming: Woe unto us, for the
scepter has departed from Judah, and the Messiah has not come!’”
(Babylonian Talmud, San. Chpt. 4, Fol. 37, recto.)
The fact of the matter was
that the Messiah had already arrived and was a young 12 year old Jewish boy
living in Nazareth whose name was Jesus!
(For further reading see
Evidence That Demands a Verdict, vol. 1, pp.168-170)
Other quotations taken from
the Jewish Scriptures include the promise of Isaiah 42:1-9 that God’s Spirit
would dwell on the Messiah. One Targum states:
"Behold my Servant
Messiah, I will draw Him near, My chosen One, in whom my Memra
(Aramaic- “word”) is well pleased."
The identification of God’s
Word with the Messiah is similar to what the Apostle John states in his
prologue:
"In the beginning was the
Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God… and the
Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us.” John 1:1, 14
Another tradition states that
the world was created for Messiah:
"Rabbi Yohanan taught
that all the world was created for Messiah. What is His name? The school
of Sheeloh taught; His name is Shiloh as it is written (Gen. 49:10)."
Sanhedrin 98b
This also agrees with what the
New Testament states:
"For by Him (Jesus) all
things were created: Things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible,
whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created
by Him (Jesus) and for Him (Jesus)." Colossians 1:16-17 (cf. John 1:1-4;
Hebrews 1:2)
The Yalkut states:
" 'And God saw the light and
it was good.' This is the Light of the Messiah... to teach you that God
saw the generation of Messiah and His works before He created the universe,
and He hid the Messiah... under His throne of Glory. Satan asked God, Master
of the Universe: 'For whom is this light under your throne of Glory?' God
answered him, 'It is for... [the Messiah] who is to turn you backward and
who will put you to scorn with shamefacedness." (Sanhedrin 99a; Berachot
34b; Shabbat 63a)
Compare this with Jesus’
statements:
"While I (Jesus) am in the
world, I am the Light of the world." John 9:5 (cf. John 1:4-5)
Finally, the Rabbis confirm
that the prophets wrote only in regards to the future advent of the long-awaited
Messiah:
“Rabbi Chiyya ben-Abba said
in Rabbi Yochanan’s name: ‘All the prophets prophesied [the good things]
only for the days of the Messiah…’” (Sanhedrin 99a; B’rakhot 34b)
In the words of Jesus Christ
himself:
“You diligently study the
Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These
are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to
have life.” John 5:39-40
From the preceding examples
and prophecies one thing remains certain. Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the
Living God. As the High Priest himself found out when questioning Jesus at His
trial:
“Are You the Messiah, the Son
of the Blessed One?”
To which Jesus replied:
"I AM, and you will see the
Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming with the
clouds of heaven.” Mark 14:61b-62
He's coming back! Are you
prepared to meet Yeshua ha-Mashiach, Ha Adonai, Ben Elohim? We pray that you
are.
Appendix A
Isaiah 53: Of Whom Does The
Prophet Speak?
We present additional Jewish references that
uphold the messianic interpretation of Isaiah 53.
According to an ancient Jewish tale, God asked
Messiah if he wanted to take upon himself the suffering for Israel’s sins. The
Messiah replied,
“With gladness in my soul and with joy in my
heart I accept it, so that not a single one of Israel should perish; and not
only those who will be alive should be saved in my days, but even the dead who
have died from the days of Adam the First man until now.” (Raphael Patai,
The Messiah Texts, citing Pesikta Rabbati, pp. 161a-b)
Sanhedrin 98b:
The rabbis say: “The Leprous of the House of
study is his name, as it is said, verily he has borne our diseases and our pains
- he carried them and we thought him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted.”
The mishnaic passage goes on to say,
“The rabbis say: ‘The identification of the
suffering, leprous one as the Messiah was not merely the opinion of one writer.
It was the commonly accepted interpretation of this passage by the Tannaim (c.
200-400 C.E.)’”
According to another legend, Elijah will take
the head of the dead Messiah Ben David, placing it on his lap and say:
“Endure the suffering and the sentence of your
Master who makes you suffer because of the sin of Israel.”
The story then concludes with a quotation from
Isaiah 53:5:
“… he was wounded for our transgressions.” (Patai,
The Messiah Texts, p.115)
Midrash Rabbah on Ruth 2:14:
He is speaking of the King Messiah: “Come
hither” draw near to the throne and “dip thy morsel in the vinegar,” this
relates to the chastisements as it is said, “But he was wounded for our
transgressions, bruised for our iniquities.”
Midrash Tanhuma, Parasha Toldot, (end
of section), states:
“Who art thou, O great mountain?” (Zech.
4:7) This refers to King Messiah. And why does he call him the “great
mountain?” Because he is greater than the patriarchs, as it is said, “My
servant shall be high, and lifted up, and lofty exceedingly.” He will be
higher than Abraham who said, “I raise high my hand unto the Lord” (Gen.
14:22), lifted up above Moses, to whom it is said, “Lift it up into thy bosom”
(Num. 11:12), loftier than the ministering angels, of whom it is written,
“Their wheels were lofty and terrible” (Ezek. 1:18). And out of whom does he
come forth? Out of David.
Jewish educator Herz Homberg (1749-1841)
states:
According to Ibn Ezra, it relates to Israel at
the end of their captivity. But if so, what can be the meaning of the passage,
“He was wounded for our transgressions?” Who was wounded? Who are the
transgressors? Who carried out the sickness and borne the pain? The fact is that
it refers to the King Messiah.
Nachmanides (R. Moshe ben Nachman) (13th
c.) notes:
“The right view respecting this Parasha is to
suppose that by the phrase ‘my servant’ the whole of Israel is meant... As a
different opinion, however, is adopted by the Midrash which refers to the
Messiah, it is necessary for us to explain it in conformity with the view there
maintained. The prophet says, The Messiah, the son of David of whom the text
speaks, will never be conquered or perish by the hands of his enemies. And, in
fact the text teaches this clearly... And by his stripes we are healed - because
the stripes by which he is vexed and distressed will heal us; God will pardon us
for his righteousness, and we shall be healed both from our own transgressions
and from the iniquities of our fathers.” (S. R. Driver and A. Neubauer, ed.,
The Fifty-third Chapter of Isaiah According to the Jewish Interpreters [2
volumes, NY; Klav, 1969], p. 78 f.)
The Karaite Yefeth ben Ali (10th
c.) states:
As to myself, I am inclined, with Benjamin of
Newahend to regard it as alluding to the Messiah, and as opening with a
description of his condition in exile, from the time of his birth to his
ascension to the throne: For the prophet begins by speaking of his being seated
in a position of great honour, and then goes back to relate all that will happen
to him during the captivity. He thus gives us to understand two things: In the
first instance, that the Messiah will only reach his highest degree of honour
after long and severe trials; and secondly, that these trials will be sent upon
him as a kind of sign, so that, if he finds himself under the yoke of
misfortunes whilst remaining pure in his actions, he may know that he is the
desired one... (Ibid., pp.19-20)
Again from Ali:
By the words “surely he hath carried our
sicknesses,” they mean that the pain and sickness which he fell into were
merited by them, but that he bore them instead... And here I think it necessary
to pause for a few moments, in order to explain why God caused these sicknesses
to attach themselves to the Messiah for the sake of Israel... The nation
deserved from God greater punishment than that which actually came upon them,
but not being strong enough to bear it...God appoints his servant to carry their
sins, and by doing so lighten their punishment in order that Israel might not be
completely exterminated. (Ibid., p. 23, f.)
And,
“And the Lord laid on him the iniquity of us
all.” The prophet does not say avon mean iniquity, but punishment from
iniquity, as in the passage, “Be sure your sin will find you out.” (Num.
Xxxii. 23) (Ibid., p. 26)
Maimonides himself affirmed the messianic
interpretation of Isaiah 53. (Ibid., vol.1, p. 322)
Finally, the idea that God would place the
sins of Israel upon an innocent man is alluded to in this Midrash:
Moses spake before the Holy One, blessed be
he, ‘Will not a time come upon when Israel will have neither Tabernacle nor
Temple? What will happen to them (as regards atonement)?’ He replied, ‘I
will take a righteous man from amongst them and make him a pledge on
their account, and I will atone for their iniquities.’ (Midrash on Exodus
35:4)
Hence, there can be not one single doubt
remaining as to whom Isaiah speaks of: namely, the Messiah whose name is Jesus.
Another attempt to avoid the messianic
overtones of these biblical passages is the argument that the passages in
question speak of these events as having already been transpired. These
prophecies are in the past, and therefore cannot be referring to the future
advent of the Messiah.
The problem with this argument is that
biblical Hebrew does not have a past tense since it is not a “tense” language.
Hebrew scholars have come to recognize that biblical Hebrew is an “aspectual”
language. This implies that the same form of the verb can be translated as past,
present, or future depending on the context and various grammatical
constructions.
Hence, it is simply wrong to argue that
because these prophecies are spoken of as having already transpired that it does
not refer to the Messiah. In fact, there are many examples in the Hebrew Bible
where the “past tense” form (called “the perfective” or “perfect”) is used for
future time. In support of this, we quote the following Rabbis and Grammarians:
David Kimchi on the prophets’ use of the
perfect tense for future events:
“The matter is as clear as though it had
already transpired.” (Kimchi, Sefer Mikhlol as cited in Bruce K. Waltke
and Michael Patrick O’Connor, An Introduction to Biblical Hebrew Syntax
[Winona Lake, IN; Eisenbrauns, 1990], p.64, n. 45)
Rabbi Isaac Ben Yedaiah (13th
c.):
[The rabbis] of blessed memory followed, in these words of theirs, in the paths of the prophets who speak of something which will happen in the future in the language of the past. Since they saw in prophetic vision that which was to occur in the future, they spoke about it in the past tense and testified firmly that it had happened, to teach the certainty of his [God’s] words- may he be blessed- and his positive promise that can never change and his beneficent message that will not be altered. (Marc Saperstein, “The Works of Rabbi Isaac b. Yedaiah.” Ph.D. dissertation, Harvard University, 1977, pp. 481-82 as cited by Robert Chazan in Daggers of Faith [Berkeley; UC Press, 1989], p. 87)
Contemporary Jewish commentator Nahum Sarna
on Exodus 12:17:
“This is an example of the ‘prophetic
perfect.’ The future is described as having already occurred because God’s will
inherently and ineluctably possesses the power of realization so that time
factor is inconsequential.” (Exodus: The Traditional Hebrew Text with the New
JPS Translation [Philadelphia; Jewish Publication Society, 1991], p. 59)
Gesenius’ Hebrew Grammar (sec. 106n, pp.
312-3113):
More particularly the uses of the perfect may
be distinguished as follows:-... To express facts which are undoubtedly
imminent, and therefore in the imagination of the speaker, already accomplished
(perfectum confidentiae), e.g., Nu 17:27, behold we perish, we are undone, we
are all undone. Gn 30:13, Is. 6:5 (I am undone), Pr 4:2... This use of the
perfect occurs most frequently in prophetic language (perfectum propheticum).
The prophet so transports himself in imagination into the future that he
describes the future event as if it had been already seen or heard by him, e.g.
Is 5:13 therefore my people have gone into captivity; 9:1ff., 10:28, 11:9...;
19:7, Jb 5:20, 2 Ch. 20:37. Not infrequently the imperfect interchanges with
such perfects either in the parallel member or further on in the narrative.
As we have already indicated, the Hebrew Bible
in such passages as Daniel 9:26 clearly place the appearance of the Messiah
before the destruction of the second temple. This fact is clearly brought out in
the following two passages:
“On the twenty-first day of the seventh month,
the word of the LORD came through the prophet Haggai: ‘Speak to Zerubbabel son
of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, to Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest,
and to the remnant of the people. Ask them, “Who of you is left who saw this
house in its former glory? How does it look to you now? Does it not seem to
you like nothing? But now be strong, O Zerubbabel,” declares the LORD. “Be
strong, O Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest. Be strong, all you people of
the land,” declares the LORD, “and work. For I am with you,” declares the LORD
Almighty. “This is what I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt. And my
Spirit remains among you. Do not fear.” This is what the LORD Almighty says: “In
a little while I will once more shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the
dry land. I will shake all nations, and the desired of all nations
will come, and I will fill this house with glory,” says the LORD Almighty.
“The silver is mine and the gold is mine,” declares the LORD Almighty.
“The glory of this present house will be
greater than the glory of the former house,” says the LORD Almighty. “And
in this place I will grant peace,” declares the LORD Almighty.’” Haggai
2:1-9 NIV
God declares that the second temple would be
greater in glory than that built by Solomon. This is due to the coming of the
one who is called “the desired of the nations.” Some translators view the
statement in v. 7 as not referring to the Messiah, but rather the splendor in
which the second temple would be adorned with, i.e. the gold and silver of the
nations.
The only problem with this view is that this
in no way would make the second temple greater than the first. The reason is
that Solomon’s temple was also arrayed with the finest and most precious
materials. Furthermore, the visible manifestation of the glory of God appeared
in the form of a cloud and filled the entire sanctuary. (Cf. 1 Kings 8:10-11)
Yet, God specifically states that the glory of
the second temple would be greater than the first. What could possible be
greater than the cloud descending on Solomon’s temple than God appearing as man
in the person of the Messiah at the second one? In the words of Yeshua:
“I tell you that one greater than
the temple is here.” Matthew 12:6
That Haggai 2:6-9 was viewed as a messianic
prophecy can be seen in this citation from Sanhedrin 97b:
“Rabbi Akibah made the inference, from
the verse, ‘Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and
the earth, and the sea, and the dry land’ (Haggai 2:6), that Simon Bar Koziba
was the Messiah, though he reigned only for two and half years.”
In spite of Akibah’s error that Koziba was the
messiah, his usage of Haggai 2:6 clearly affirms that at least one rabbi
understood this passage messianicly.
The prophet Malachi predicted
that God would personally appear at the second temple:
“See I will send my
messenger who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you
are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant whom
you desire will come, says the LORD Almighty.” Malachi 3:1
According to this prediction,
the Lord himself was to come and enter his temple. Rabbi Mosheh ben Maimon
applied this to the Messiah:
“What is to be the manner of
Messiah’s coming, and where will be the place of his first appearance?
He will make his first appearance in the land of Israel, as it is written,
‘The LORD whom ye seek will come suddenly to his temple.’”
In fact, some rabbis were of
the opinion that the Messiah had even been born during the destruction of the
second temple:
“Rabbi Shemuel bar Nehmani
said: On the day when the Temple was destroyed Israel suffered much for their
sins... And from whence do we know that on that day (when the Temple was
destroyed] Messiah was born? For it is written, ‘Before she travailed,
she brought forth [the Messiah].’ ” Bereshit Rabbati 133 (Isaiah 66:7)
The Talmud of Babylon
declares:
“R. Hillel says there will
be no Messiah for Israel, because they have enjoyed him already (fol. 99, col.
1) in the days of Hezekiah. Said Rav. Joseph, may God pardon R. Hillel. When
was Hezekiah? In the first house, but And Zechariah (9:9) prophesied
in THE SECOND HOUSE Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout O daughter of
Jerusalem; Behold thy King cometh unto thee; He is just and having salvation;
lowly, and riding on an ass, and upon a colt, the foal of an ass.’ “
(Sanhedrin fol. 99, c. 1)
The only person who claimed to
be the divine Messiah and appeared while the second temple was still standing is
Yeshua Messiah:
“When the time of their
purification according to the Law of Moses had been completed, Joseph and Mary
took him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord… Now there was a man in
Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the
consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. It had been
revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the
Lord’s Christ. Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts. When
the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what was the
custom of the Law required, Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying:
‘Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you now dismiss your servant in peace.
For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of
all people, a light of revelation to the Gentiles and for the glory to your
people Israel.’” Luke 2:22, 25-32
“After the feast was over,
while his parents were returning home, the boy Jesus stayed behind in
Jerusalem, but they were unaware of it. Thinking he was in their company, they
traveled on for a day. Then they began looking for him among their relatives
and friends. When they did not find him, they went back to Jerusalem to look
for him. After three days they found him in the temple courts, sitting among
the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. Everyone who
heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers. When his
parents saw him, they were astonished. His mother said to him, ‘Son, why have
you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for
you.’ ‘Why were you searching for me?’ he asked. ‘Didn’t you know I had to
be in my Father’s house?’ But they did not understand what he was saying
to them.” Luke 2:43-48
“When it was almost time for
the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple courts he found
men selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging
money. So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple area,
both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and
overturned their tables. To those who sold doves he said, ‘Get these out of
here! How dare you turn my Father’s house into a market!’ His disciples
remembered that it is written: ‘Zeal for your house will consume me.’” John
2:13-17
Hence, if Jesus is not the
Messiah there will be no Messiah. This is based on the testimony of the Hebrew
Bible that the Messiah had to come before the destruction of the second temple.
We are thankful to God that he did arrive before the temple’s destruction, as
was predicted.
Daniel and The Issue of the
‘Atnach
Rabbinic Jews bring out the charge that Daniel
9:25 is actually referring to two Messiahs, not just one. This is due primarily
to the fact that in the Hebrew text of Daniel there is a grammatical construct
known as ‘atnach. This Hebrew punctuation mark mandates that there should be a
break between the first period of 7 “sevens” and the following 62 “sevens.” One
typical example of such argumentation can be found at the Jews-For-Judaism Web
Site:
“Second, the King James Version disregards
the Hebrew punctuation. The punctuation mark 'atnach functions as the main
pause within a sentence. The 'atnach is the appropriate equivalent of the
semicolon in the modern system of punctuation. It thus has the effect of
separating the seven weeks from the sixty-two weeks: ". . . until an anointed
one, a prince, shall be seven weeks; then for sixty-two weeks it shall be
built again . . ." (9:25).
“By creating a sixty-nine week period, which
is not divided into two separate periods of seven weeks and sixty-two weeks
respectively, Christians reach an incorrect conclusion, i.e., that the Messiah
will come 483 years after the destruction of the First Temple.” (see related
link- http://www.jewsforjudaism.org/j4j-2000/Home.html)
Noted Biblical scholar, Dr. James D. Price,
Ph.D. offers the following answer in response to Atheist Jim Lippard’s article,
The Fabulous Prophecies of the Messiah. Lippard tries to use the same
argument on the Hebrew ‘atnach as an argument against the Christian
interpretation of Daniel 9, an assertion to which Price gladly responds:
“(2) Lippard, based on the work of Sigal, points out that the punctuation of the Hebrew text, as indicated by the Masoretic accents, places a major division of the verse between the seven weeks of years and the sixty-two weeks of years in verse 25. This makes the passage state that the Messiah will come after the seven weeks of years, and another Messiah after the sixty-two weeks. He is right, the Masoretic accent known as Athnach (the second strongest of the disjunctive accents) separates the seven weeks from the sixty-two weeks. This would seem almost conclusive if one were satisfied with shallow scholarship. But one must know more than the elementary concepts of the Masoretic accents before such conclusions can be made. The most important principle regarding the Masoretic accents is that they are primarily musical and only secondarily grammatical.
“William Wickes, the most highly respected
authority on the Masoretic accents, stated: ‘The character of the accentuation
is . . . preeminently musical.’[10] Likewise, Israel Yeivin, a modern
Masoretic authority wrote that the primary function of the accents ‘is to
represent the musical motifs to which the Biblical text was chanted in the
public reading.’[11]
“My own research on the Masoretic accents
has verified this principle.[12] The placement of the accents of a verse
are usually in harmony with the grammar of the Biblical text; but they are
governed primarily by the musical demands of cantillation, and especially in
poetry (as is this text of Daniel), the musical demands may overrule the
grammatical demands. For example, in 1 Chronicles 1:7, a prose section,
the text reads: ‘The sons of Javan were Elisha and Tarshishah, Kittim and
Rodanim.’ This verse has a predicate with a fourfold compound predicate
complement. In this verse the Athnach separates Tarshishah from Kittim.
Grammatically there is no reason to place the major division of the verse in
the middle of the compound predicate complement. According to the accents the
verse should be punctuated ‘The sons of Javan were Elisha and Tarshishah;
Kittim and Rodanim.’ Such punctuation is grammatically illogical. But the
situation is even worse in 1 Chronicles 1:13-16 which constitutes only one
sentence in English (and Hebrew): ‘Canaan begot Sidon, his firstborn, and Heth,
and the Jebusite, and the Amorite, and the Girgashite, and the Hivite, and the
Arkite, and the Sinite, and the Arvadite, and the Zemrite, and the Hamathite.’
This sentence contains a compound object of the verb ‘begot’ with eleven
elements each joined with the others by the conjunction ‘and.’ Yet this
compound object is divided into four segments by the strongest disjunctive
accent in Hebrew: Silluq with Soph Pasuq. There is no grammatical reason to
divide this sentence into four segments. The reason for such grammatically
illogical divisions is musical, due strictly to cantillation not grammar and
syntax.
“Such grammatically illogical divisions occur
often, especially in poetry. So for example, in the very verse under discussion
(Dan 9:25) a rather strong disjunctive accent (Tiphcha) separates ‘seven’ from
‘weeks,’ words that are obviously grammatically related; a disjunctive accent (Garshaim)
separates ‘weeks’ from ‘sixty-two,’ again words that are obviously grammatically
related; and a second time the rather strong disjunctive accent (Tiphcha)
separates ‘troublesome’ from ‘times,’ words that are obviously grammatically
related.
“So one cannot take an elementary
approach to the accents of any verse. The punctuation of a translation,
although often guided by the Masoretic accentuation, must be governed by
the grammar, syntax, and exposition of the Hebrew text. These linguistic
features often must overrule the musical cantillation. So in this passage,
the punctuation preferred by Lippard, Sigal, and the RSV divide the verse so
that it makes little sense. It calls for the introduction of two different
Messiahs where the text obviously refers to only one; otherwise the laws of
linguistics expect a distinguisher such as "another" to mark the fact that the
second word ‘Messiah’ has a different referent. Otherwise the same referent is
expected. (See related link-
http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/jim_lippard/proph-response.html)
Finally, the Jews-For-Judaism have made a
serious error, since there is no punctuation in the original Hebrew. The accents
of which they speak of were only officially added hundreds of years after Jesus.
Another argument commonly presented against
the messaihship of Jesus is the fact that he is a descendant of accursed
Jehoiachin. According to Matthew’s genealogy Jesus is listed as an offspring of
Jehoaichin (Mat. 1:11-16) In Jeremiah 22:24-30, God says of Jehoiachin:
“’As surely as I live,’ declares the LORD,
‘even if you, Jehoiachin, son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, were a signet
ring on my right hand, I would still pull you off. I will hand you over to
those who seek your life, those you fear- to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon
and to the Babylonians. I will hurl you and the mother who gave you birth into
another country, where neither of you was born, and there you both will die.
You will never come back to the land you long to return to,’ Is this man
Jehoiachin a despised, broken pot, an object no one wants? Why will he and his
children be hurled out, cast into a land they do not know? O land, land, land,
hear the word of the LORD! This is what the LORD says: ‘Record this man as
childless, a man who will not prosper in his lifetime, for none of his
offspring will prosper, none will sit on the throne of David or rule anymore
in Judah.’”
If Matthew’s genealogy is correct, then Jesus
cannot be a legitimate King of Israel nor the Messiah of God.
It must be stated that the scriptures clearly
teach that God’s decree of judgment is not always final since God often allows
time for repentance to occur since his desire is for none to perish:
“Say to them, ‘As surely as I live declares
the Sovereign LORD, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather
that they turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways! Why
will you die, O house of Israel?’” Ezekiel 33:11
In relation to God reversing a decision he has
made due to man’s actions we read in Jeremiah 18:7-10:
“If at any time I announce that a nation or
kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down and destroyed, and if that nation I warn
repents of its evil, then I will relent and not inflict on it the disaster I
had planned. And if at another time I announce that a nation and kingdom is to
be built up and planted, and if it does evil in my sight and does not obey me,
then I will reconsider the good I had intended to for it.”
An example of God reversing his decision due
to a nation or individual’s action after hearing the prophetic warning is
Ninevah. According to Jonah 3:4 God had declared that the city would be
destroyed forty days after the prophet’s warning. But according to Jonah 3:10 we
are told that after “God saw what they (the Assyrians) did and how they turned
from their evil ways, he had compassion and did not bring upon them the
destruction he had threatened.”
Evidently, we find this to be the case with
Jehoiachin who obviously had repented since we find certain aspects of the curse
reversed. For instance, one stipulation of the curse was that neither he nor his
offspring would prosper and yet we find him prospering at the hands of Evil-Merodach
king of Babylon:
“In the thirty-seventh year of the exile of
Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the year Evil-Merodach became king of Babylon, he
released Jehoiachin king of Judah from prison on the twenty-fifth day of the
twelfth month. He spoke kindly to him and gave him a seat of honor higher than
those of the other kings who were with him in Babylon. So Jehoiachin put aside
his prison clothes and for the rest of his life ate regularly at the king’s
table. Day by day the king gave Jehoiachin a regular allowance as long as he
lived, till the day of his death.” Jer. 52:31-34
Furthermore, we find his descendant Zerubbabel
prospering in the hands of God, being commissioned by the Lord to rebuild his
house:
“’On that day,’ declares the LORD Almighty,
‘I will take you, my servant Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel,’ declares the LORD,
‘and I will make you like my signet ring, for I have chosen you,’
declares the LORD Almighty.’” Haggai 2:23
These factors strongly support the fact that
Jehoiachin had repented which moved God reverse the curse upon him. This is not
simply a Christian view but one endorsed by orthodox rabbinic Judaism as well.
Sanhedrin 37b-38a states:
“R. Johanen said: Exile atones for
everything, for it is written, ‘Thus saith the Lord, write ye this man
childless, a man that shall not prosper in his days, for no man of his seed
shall prosper sitting upon the throne of David and ruling, anymore in Judah.’
Whereas after he[the king] was exiled, it is written, ‘And the sons of
Jeconiah,’- ‘the same is Asir, Shealtiel his son etc.’ (1) [He was
called] Asir, because his mother conceived him in prison. Shealtiel, because
God did not plant him in the way that others are planted. We know by tradition
that a woman cannot conceive in a standing position, [yet she] did conceive
standing. Another interpretation: Shealtiel, because God ordained [of the
heavenly court] absolution from his oath.(2)”
According to Pesikta de-Rab Kahana, God
states “I accepted the repentance of Jeconiah: Shall I not accept your
repentance?...”
Finally, the Jewish Encyclopedia
records:
“Jehoiachin’s sad experiences changed his
nature entirely, as he repented of the sins which he had committed as king
he was pardoned by God, who revoked the decree to the effect that none of his
descendants should ever become king... he even became the ancestor of the
Messiah (Tan, Toledot, 20 [ed. Buber, I. 140] emphasis ours)
AMEN, COME LORD JESUS.
Sam Shamoun
e-mail: sam_shmn40@hotmail.com
Abrahamic Faith