Judaic Messiah and Jesus Christ

(All Bible verses quoted in this study are taken from New King James Version, if not otherwise mentioned)

Judaism, Christianity and Islam are considered generally as Abrahamic religions. All these three religions believe in a Messiah or 'the anointed one' who is the saviour or liberator of humans. The concept of Messiah originated in Judaism with exclusive characteristics for him.

The word "Messiah" is an English rendering of the Hebrew word Mashiach. It is translated in Greek as Khristós (Χριστός) which in English is Christ. The word means “anointed”.

The Messiah concept is a fundamental part of Judaism. In Hebrew, the Messiah is also called as Melekh Mashiach which means 'the Anointed King'. The ‘anointing’ is a ritual in which someone or something is consecrated by pouring holy oil on him or it. In the Old Testament, kings, priests and prophets were anointed by the holy oil. The altar in the Temple, vessels, unleavened bread were anointed with oil. (Exodus 29:7, 1 Kings 1:39, Exodus 29:2)

In Judaism, the Messiah is someone who is chosen to rule.  He is a Jewish political and spiritual leader. He must be a king and or a High Priest anointed with holy oil. The Messiah will come to Earth to bring a time of perfect peace and prosperity. His reign is called the Messianic Age. Generally Jews believe in a single person as Messiah. But there are Jewish scholars who argue for the concept of a more than one person Messiah.

Jews and Jesus as Messiah

Though the Christians consider Jesus as Messiah, Jewish theologians never accepted this claim. In their opinion, the birth, life and ministry of Jesus was never in accordance with the Jewish eschatology. A summary of their arguments may be listed as follows:   

 

1.      Jesus failed to fulfill the Messianic prophecies in His life. No event associated with Messiah occurred at the time of Jesus.

2.      Jesus failed to embody the personal qualifications of the Messiah.

3.      The Biblical verses used by Christians to prove that Jesus is the Messianic are mistranslations.

4.      Jewish belief is based on national revelation. They expect a king or priest as the Messiah.

 

Three main events that the Messiah should fulfill are:

 

1.      The rebuilding of the Jerusalem Temple

2.      The ingathering of Jews to their homeland

3.      The establishment of the Messianic Age of peace and the ingathering of Jews to their homeland.

But recently there are some Jews who regard Jesus as a Jewish teacher. But they do not share any of the beliefs of the Christians. Jesus did not started or instructed His disciples to start a new religion. He never used the word, “Christians”. He was born and lived as a Jew, and his earliest followers were all Jews. Christianity emerged as a separate religion only in the centuries after Jesus’ death. The historic Jesus is more close to Judaism than the picture presented by apostles like Paul. So the orthodox Jewish scholars do not accept the Christian claim about Jesus as the Messiah.

 

Messiah in Christianity

It is true that the early followers of Jesus were Hebrew speaking Jews, who lived in the land of Israel. They were the practitioners of the first-century Judaism. They were conversant with the Hebrew Scriptures. And they were convinced that Jesus was their long-awaited Promised One.

 

The roots of the Messiah concept in Christianity are in Judaism. Christians believe that the Old Testament prophecies about his mission, death, and resurrection of the Messiah are fulfilled in Jesus Christ. He is a descent from the Davidic line and was declared as the King of the Jews. Christians also believe that Jesus is the Son of God. The unfulfilled prophecies will be fulfilled when He come again and usher in a Messianic Age and the world to come.

 

So let us discuss the expectations of Jews and the arguments of Christians regarding the Messiah.

 

National Leader

 

According to Judaism, Messiah will be a great spiritual and political leader like Moses, who would lead the people to a new freedom, a new 'Exodus'. Moses also spoke about another prophet who would rise in the future.  

 

Deuteronomy 18:15 "The LORD your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your midst, from your brethren. Him you shall hear,

 

Deuteronomy 18: 18 (God said to Moses) 'I will raise up for them a Prophet like you from among their brethren, and will put My words in His mouth, and He shall speak to them all that I command Him.

 

The Judaic Messiah will be a person as prophesied by Daniel.

 

Daniel 7: 13, 14

13 I was watching in the night visions, And behold, One like the Son of Man, Coming with the clouds of heaven! He came to the Ancient of Days, And they brought Him near before Him.

14 Then to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, That all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, Which shall not pass away, And His kingdom the one Which shall not be destroyed.

 

Jewish expectation is that the Messiah would be a great military leader like King David. His mission is predetermined. He shall fight God’s wars. He will fight for God’s people. He will win the war. This is an undisputable and unavoidable sign that he is the anointed one. And during the time of Jesus, they expected the Messiah to expel the Romans from their land and set up the Jewish state of Israel.

 

Longing for a king like David

The northern Israel was conquered by the Assyrians in BC 740 and 735. Many were taken to Assyria as captives. Assyrians attacked the southern kingdom Judea in 700 BC. They captured 46 towns and took away almost 2 lakhs people. But they could not conquer Jerusalem.

 

After the Assyrian empire, the Babylonian Empire became stronger. Babylon attacked Judah in BC 598 and 587. They conquered Judah and took many Jews as captives to Babylon. The Jewish people in exile longed for a time when God would restore the Jewish nation to its former glory it had under King David (1004 BC - 971 BC).

 

Everything about the Messiah in Judaism starts with King David. David is their ideal king and warrior. He fought against God’s enemies, won wars for God, expanded the boundaries of Israel and ruled according to God’s will. He was a man chosen by God and lived according to God’s heart.

 

David’s period was a time of peace and prosperity. The Messiah should be a better king. So the Messiah should learn the Torah and live according to all the commandments. That will bring God’s blessings to Israel and fill the land with peace and prosperity.

 

The Jewish prophet Amos, writing just before the fall of the northern kingdom looked ahead to the restoration of Israel after the exile.

 

Amos 9: 11 On that day I will raise up The tabernacle of David, which has fallen down, And repair its damages; I will raise up its ruins, And rebuild it as in the days of old;

 

Apostle James repeats this prophecy in Acts 15.

 

Acts 15: 16 After this I will return And will rebuild the tabernacle of David, which has fallen down; I will rebuild its ruins, And I will set it up;

 

The “tent of David” mentioned by Amos and quoted by James refers to the house or line of David. To rebuild the house of David implies the coming of the Messiah.

 

Hosea, who lived in the northern kingdom of Israel, declared that:

 

Hosea 3: 4, 5

4    For the children of Israel shall abide many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred pillar, without ephod or teraphim.

5    Afterward the children of Israel shall return and seek the LORD their God and David their king. They shall fear the LORD and His goodness in the latter days.

 

The Jewish prophet Isaiah, who lived about the same time, looked ahead to a powerful military leader. He shall descended from Israel’s most successful warrior, King David.

 

Isaiah 9:7 Of the increase of His government and peace There will be no end, Upon the throne of David and over His kingdom, To order it and establish it with judgment and justice From that time forward, even forever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.

 

The prophet Jeremiah, also foresaw a time when a 'good branch' would sprout from David's family tree:

 

Jeremiah 23:5 Behold, the days are coming," says the LORD, "That I will raise to David a Branch of righteousness; A King shall reign and prosper, And execute judgment and righteousness in the earth.

 

The prophet Ezekiel, writing after the fall of Jerusalem in 587 BC looked ahead to a future time when God would save his people:

 

Ezekiel 34: 23, 24

23  I will establish one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them-My servant David. He shall feed them and be their shepherd.

24 And I, the LORD, will be their God, and My servant David a prince among them; I, the LORD, have spoken.

 

Davidic Covenant

 

Kingship came to Israel after the last judge Samuel. Saul was the first king. But later God removed him from the kingship because of his disobedience. After him David was chosen by God as the king. He was the king of Judah for the first 7 years and later became the king of the whole 12 tribes. After David, his son Solomon sat on the throne. Only these three kings ruled over the 12 tribes of Israel. After Solomon the kingdom was divided into two – Israel and Judah.

 

According to Judaism the Messiah should descent from David through Solomon. Solomon was God’s chosen heir to David, The Messiah will be called “Messiah ben David”. That means, “Messiah son of David”. 

 

David was man according to God’s heart. So God promised him, through Prophet Nathan, a throne and kingdom that would last forever. This promise of God is known as the Davidic Covenant.  

 

The covenant is announced by the prophet Nathan to David as recorded in 2 Samuel 7: 12, 13 and 16.

 

2 Samuel 7: 12, 13  

12  When your days are fulfilled and you rest with your fathers, I will set up your seed after you, who will come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom.

13 He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.

 

2 Samuel 7: 16 And your house and your kingdom shall be established forever before you. Your throne shall be established forever.   

 

So Judaism believed that the messiah will be a patrilineal bloodline descendant of King David. Christianity also agree that the Messiah will be a descendant of King David. So the question is “Is Jesus a descendant of King David?”

 

Conditional and unconditional

Davidic covenant has an unconditional part and a conditional part. To David the covenant is unconditional and forever. To David’s posterity, it is conditional. David knew about the conditional part of the covenant. 

 

Psalms 132: 11, 12  

11 The LORD has sworn in truth to David; He will not turn from it: "I will set upon your throne the fruit of your body.

12 If your sons will keep My covenant And My testimony which I shall teach them, Their sons also shall sit upon your throne forevermore."

 

Before his death, David reminded Solomon about the conditional character of the covenant.

 

1 kings 2: 4 "that the LORD may fulfill His word which He spoke concerning me, saying, 'If your sons take heed to their way, to walk before Me in truth with all their heart and with all their soul,' He said, 'you shall not lack a man on the throne of Israel.'  

 

Solomon also understood about the condition in the promise. In in his prayer while the dedication of the Temple, Solomon reiterates the conditional promise:

 

1 Kings 8: 25 "Therefore, LORD God of Israel, now keep what You promised Your servant David my father, saying, 'You shall not fail to have a man sit before Me on the throne of Israel, only if your sons take heed to their way, that they walk before Me as you have walked before Me.'  

 

In 1 Kings 9: 1- 7 God reminds Solomon about the condition in the promise.

 

1 Kings 9: 4 - 7

4    "Now if you walk before Me as your father David walked, in integrity of heart and in uprightness, to do according to all that I have commanded you, and if you keep My statutes and My judgments,

 5 "then I will establish the throne of your kingdom over Israel forever, as I promised David your father, saying, 'You shall not fail to have a man on the throne of Israel.'

   

But Solomon failed to obey all commandments of God. He took gentile women for wives and under their influence sacrificed to their gods.

 

1 kings 11: 11 Therefore the LORD said to Solomon, "Because you have done this, and have not kept My covenant and My statutes, which I have commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom away from you and give it to your servant.  

 

So after Solomon, the kingdom was divided into two: the kingdom of Israel in the north and the kingdom of Judah in the south. Rehoboam, Solomon’s son became the king of the southern kingdom of Judah. Jeroboam became the king of the northern kingdom of Israel.

 

Jeroboam was not of Davidic line. He belonged to the tribe of Ephraim. According to 1 Kings 11: 26, Jeroboam was one of Solomon’s official servants. Not only that, none of Davidic line ever became king of whole 12 tribes. The undivided kingdom of Israel was never restored.

 

Jehu was from the tribe of Judah but not from Davidic line. (1 Chronicles 2:38). God promised him a line of kings for four generations in the kingdom of Israel. It was not forever.

 

2 kings 10:30 And the LORD said to Jehu, "Because you have done well in doing what is right in My sight, and have done to the house of Ahab all that was in My heart, your sons shall sit on the throne of Israel to the fourth generation."

  

The kingdom of Judah in the south had Davidic kings. But the kings of Judah didn’t rule over Israel.  Judah’s last two kings were Jeconiah and Zedekiah. 

 

Davidic covenant is eternal

Though the kingdom was divided because of Solomon’s evil ways, the Davidic Covenant remains eternal. It was unconditional for David. And no lawlessness was counted on David. The condition in the promise is for his sons. They have broken the covenant and the kingdom was taken away.

 

Psalms 89: 34-37

34 My covenant I will not break, Nor alter the word that has gone out of My lips.

35 Once I have sworn by My holiness; I will not lie to David:

36 His seed shall endure forever, And his throne as the sun before Me;

37 It shall be established forever like the moon, Even like the faithful witness in the sky."

 

1 Chronicles 17: 11, 14

11 "And it shall be, when your days are fulfilled, when you must go to be with your fathers, that I will set up your seed after you, who will be of your sons; and I will establish his kingdom.

 

 14 "And I will establish him in My house and in My kingdom forever; and his throne shall be established forever."

 

Here Prophet Nathan is declaring the Davidic Covenant. It is the custom of the Old Testament prophets, to connect the present deliverance with a greater future deliverance. Prophecies pass immediately from the present to the future. They may not mention the intervening years. So here, verse 11 speaks about David’s son Solomon, but verse 14 speaks about God’s eternal Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus will establish His throne in the Kingdom of God forever.

 

About three hundred years after the declaration of Davidic covenant, prophet Isaiah announced a broken period between Solomon and Jesus Christ.

 

Isaiah 11: 1 - 4

1    There shall come forth a Rod from the stem of Jesse, And a Branch shall grow out of his roots.

2    The Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon Him, The Spirit of wisdom and understanding, The Spirit of counsel and might, The Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD.

3    His delight is in the fear of the LORD, And He shall not judge by the sight of His eyes, Nor decide by the hearing of His ears;

4    But with righteousness He shall judge the poor, And decide with equity for the meek of the earth; He shall strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, And with the breath of His lips He shall slay the wicked.

 

Jesse is the father of David. This prophecy is about the Messiah who will come in the line of David. Here the Messiah is represented as a slender twig shooting up from the root of an old withered stem. It is a weak tender plant at the beginning, but it shall become fruitful and mighty.

 

The prophecy says that the royal line of David will be preserved. But it will cease to reign for a period and become a dry twig. And afterwards a branch shall grow out of its roots. In history, none ruled the undivided Kingdom of Israel after Solomon. And in Judah, the Davidic line of Kings was ceased by Jeconiah. After him his uncle Zedekiah became the king of Judah. After Zedekiah the kingship ceased for almost six hundred years until Christ.

 

But not the promise about the line of descendants from David is eternal. Within David’s descendants was the unconditional promise of a restored everlasting kingdom. Another Son of David would rule forever as a lasting house over Israel. 

 

This is the good news announced by the angel Gabriel to Mary:

 

Luke 1: 30-33

30 Then the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.

31 "And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name JESUS.

32 "He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David.

33 "And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end."

 

Jesus was addressed as the son of God at more than one occasion by the Jewish people lived during His life time. Bartimaeus, the blind man sat by the road side of Jericho to Jerusalem called him, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!" (Mark 10:47).

 

Matthew 1 starts with the statement about the legal right of Jesus to be called the son of David. The verse says: “The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham (Matthew1:1)

 

The common people understood Jesus as the Messiah and son of David. The were amazed to see Jesus healing the demon possessed, blind and mute. And they might have remembered the Messianic prophecy in Isaiah 35:5.

 

Isaiah 35:5 Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, And the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.

 

And so they asked: "Could this be the Son of David?" They were thinking loud whether Jesus is the promised descendant of David, the Messiah.

 

In Matthew 15:22, the Canaanite woman calls Him “O Lord, Son of David”. Matthew in chapter 21 narrates the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem sitting on a donkey. Jesus entered triumphantly as a king who comes with the message of peace. Verse 9 says:

 

Matthew 21: 9 Then the multitudes who went before and those who followed cried out, saying: "Hosanna to the Son of David! 'Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!' Hosanna in the highest!"

 

Jesus entry on a donkey has some spiritual meaning in it. During those days, kings used to travel on donkey after their coronation as a king. It shows humility and peace on the part of the new king. Thus 1 Kings 1: 33 says that king Solomon enters Gihon on a mule on his day of coronation.

 

The journey of Jesus on the donkey signifies three spiritual mysteries.

 

1.      It is a fulfilment of the prophecy of Zechariah.   

 

Zechariah 9: 9 "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you; He is just and having salvation, Lowly and riding on a donkey, A colt, the foal of a donkey.

 

Matthew says in his gospel 21: 5 that this prophecy was fulfilled in Jesus when He entered the Jerusalem city on a donkey.

 

2.      As I said before, kings during the time used to enter their capital city riding on a mule. A warrior or king who enters a city on horse is symbol of war and who enters on a donkey is a symbol of peace. Jesus was travelling on a lowly animal symbolizing peace to the city. He is a king and has come with the message of peace.

 

3.      The ancient city of Jerusalem had 8 gates. One of them was the Eastern Gate or the Golden Gate. This gate faced the mount Olive. According to traditional belief of the Jews, the true Messiah would enter Jerusalem through the Eastern Gate. If he enters through any other way, he is not the true Messiah.

 

It is believed that King Solomon built the Eastern Gate. He built three gates to the Temple. One among them was the Eastern Gate. Later the Muslim conquers understood the spiritual significance of this gate and they blocked it with bricks. In AD 810 a Muslim army and in AD 1541 the Ottoman Sultan Suleiman built brick wall across the gate. So no one can enter the city through the Eastern Gate now. 

 

Jesus entered Jerusalem on a donkey through the Eastern Gate on the day of Hosanna. This was a sign that He is the true Messiah. So the people on that day shouted, "Hosanna to the Son of David!” (Matthew 21:9).  

 

In Romans 1: 3 apostle Paul presents, “Jesus Christ our Lord, who was born of the seed of David”. Again in 2 Timothy 2:8, Paul says, “Remember that Jesus Christ, of the seed of David, was raised from the dead according to my gospel”. And in Revelation 5: 5, apostle John sees in a vision that “But one of the elders said to me, "Do not weep. Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has prevailed to open the scroll and to loose its seven seals." All these evidences proves that the contemporary Jews on His time understood Him as the Son of David and the Messiah.

 

Genealogy

 

Jewish objections

Christians claim that Jesus is a descent of David through his foster father Joseph. His genealogy is claimed via adoption and through His mother Mary. But Jews do not accept these arguments for two reasons.

 

1.   There is no biblical basis for the idea of a father passing on his tribal line by adoption. A priest who adopts a son from another tribe cannot make him a priest by adoption.

 

2.   According to Matthew 1:11, Jesus’ adopted father Joseph descended from Jeconiah. He was a Judaic King in the line of David through Solomon. But he fell under God’s curse that none of his descendants could ever sit as king upon the throne of David. (Jeremiah 22:30). As a result none of his sons continued in the throne. His uncle (his father’s brother) Zedekiah became king after him. So neither Joseph nor Jesus can be considered as a legal descendent of David who has a right to the throne.

 

3.   Mary’s genealogy goes back to Nathan, David’s third son by Bathsheba. So Jesus is not a legal descend of Solomon. Solomon was David’s first son in Bathsheba. (1 Chronicles 3: 5; 2 Samuel 5: 14; 2 Samuel 12: 24).

 

Importance of genealogy

From the Old Testament times, it is customary for the rulers of nations to keep a chronological record of events that happen in their country. They also kept genealogies of people.

 

An instance of keeping chronicles by kings is narrated in the book of Esther, chapter 2.  Two of the king’s eunuchs plotted against the Persian king Ahasuerus. Mordecai, the uncle of Esther, came to know about it and he informed Esther about the plot. Esther in turn passed the information to the king in Mordecai’s name. And this was recorded in the book of the chronicles in the presence of the king (Esther 2:21-23). It is the same chronicle that the king read afterwards which lead to the honour of Mordecai. (Esther 6:1).

 

Kings of Israel and Judah also had recorders or historiographers who maintained public records and genealogies (1 Kings.4:3). Genealogies were important for Israelites because it is their tribal identity. Here are some instance of recording genealogies.

 

1 Chronicles 9:1 So all Israel was recorded by genealogies, and indeed, they were inscribed in the book of the kings of Israel. But Judah was carried away captive to Babylon because of their unfaithfulness.  

 

We have another example of keeping genealogy in the book of Ezra 8:1. This is a genealogy of the Jews returning from Babylon.

 

Ezra 8: 1 These are the heads of their fathers' houses, and this is the genealogy of those who went up with me from Babylon, in the reign of King Artaxerxes:  

 

Another example is available in Nehemiah 7: 5

 

Nehemiah 7: 5 Then my God put it into my heart to gather the nobles, the rulers, and the people, that they might be registered by genealogy. And I found a register of the genealogy of those who had come up in the first return, and found written in it:

 

So they considered genealogical records important and a must. So in the New Testament we read about the decree of the Roman Emperor Augustus to take a census of the people. And the Jews went to his own city to register their own genealogy. This helped to avoid doubling of the numbers.

 

The Jews kept a record of their genealogy until near the destruction of Jerusalem.

 

In the New Testament, we have two genealogies of Jesus, in the gospels of Matthew and Luke. Both starts with Joseph. But Matthew’s genealogy is about Joseph’s lineage and that of Luke is Mary’s lineage. 

 

Genealogy in Matthew

The genealogy of Matthew is found in Chapter 1: 1-18. This is the genealogy from Abraham to Joseph, the foster father of Jesus. The genealogy in Matthew presents Jesus’ legal right as the heir to the throne of David. Matthew’s purpose was legal. He proves that Jesus is the ultimate fulfilment of the Davidic covenant.

 

This is the genealogy of Joseph. It was the Jews' custom to trace descents through the father. According to Matthew 1: 16 Jacob was the father of Joseph. Joseph was the husband of Mary and the legal father of Jesus. So Luke 3: 23 he says that Jesus was the supposed son of Joseph. The International Standard Version says that he was “legally calculated” to be Joseph’s son. What he means is that Joseph was the legal father of Jesus, not His biological father. 

 

Legally, the Jews of Jesus' day looked on Jesus as a son of Joseph (John 6: 42). Also, Joseph's lineage emphasizes the virgin birth of Jesus.

 

Genealogy in Luke

Luke records in 3: 23 – 38, a different genealogy, beginning with Joseph and going back to Adam. Luke also relates Jesus to King David and the covenant.

 

According to the inheritance law in ancient Israel, both the tangible (property and goods) and intangible (family name and position) were passed to sons, not daughters. However, in Numbers, an exception was made for fathers who had no son. 

 

Numbers 27: 8 "And you shall speak to the children of Israel, saying: 'If a man dies and has no son, then you shall cause his inheritance to pass to his daughter.

 

Numbers 36: 7, 8

7   "So the inheritance of the children of Israel shall not change hands from tribe to tribe, for every one of the children of Israel shall keep the inheritance of the tribe of his fathers.

8   "And every daughter who possesses an inheritance in any tribe of the children of Israel shall be the wife of one of the family of her father's tribe, so that the children of Israel each may possess the inheritance of his fathers.

 

But Levite women could freely intermarry because Levites had no land inheritance to preserve.

 

Mary had a sister named Salóme, but no brothers.  (Mark 15: 40, Matthew 27: 56, John 19: 25). While on the cross, Jesus gave His cousin John the responsibility of caring for Mary. Usually the responsibility to take care of a woman goes to her husband. If her husband is deceased, her son cared for her. If she has no husband and son, it is her brother’s responsibility. John was the son of Mary’s sister, Salome.

 

Salome married Zebedee, a well-to-do Galilean fisherman. Salome was Jesus’ aunt. Zebedee’s sons, James and John, were Jesus’ first cousins.  Jesus was closest to James, John, and Peter.

 

Heli (Eli) and Joseph were both from the tribe of Judah. Heli was Mary’s father and Joseph was her husband. Since Heli had no son, he adopted his son in law Joseph for inheritance purposes. According to Matthew 1: 16, Joseph's biological father is Jacob. Joseph became Heli’s heir through his daughter’s marriage. Since there was no Greek word for “son-in-law”, daughter’s husbands were also called son.

 

The genealogy in Luke starts with Joseph who was considered to be the son of Heli. So Luke’s narration is actually Mary’s genealogy.

 

Luke 3:23, 24

23 Now Jesus Himself began His ministry at about thirty years of age, being (as was supposed) the son of Joseph, the son of Heli,

24 the son of Matthat, the son of Levi, the son of Melchi, the son of Janna, the son of Joseph,

 

The genealogy starts with Joseph and goes back through his father in law, Heli and then through Heli’s father Matthat. The genealogy connects to David through his third living son Nathan (Luke 3:31). Both Solomon and Nathan were sons of Bathsheba (1Chronicles 3:5, 2 Samuel 5:13, 14), David’s best-known wife.

 

In Judaism, the adoptive parents do not entirely replace the role of the biological parents. The genealogy determines the tribal status of the child, which cannot be changed by a legal procedure. Since Jesus had a virgin birth, He had only one human parent, Mary. So the genealogy of Jesus through Mary is the tribal status of Jesus.

 

Both genealogies record Christ's right to rule on David's throne. Joseph's genealogy shows that Christ was a legal descendant of Solomon. Mary’s genealogy shows that Jesus is in the line of David through his son Nathan.

 

Two Messiahs

Many rabbis spoke of two Messiahs, Messiah ben Joseph and Messiah ben David. Messiah ben Joseph is the Suffering Servant and Messiah ben David is the Conquering King. ‘ben’ in Hebrew means ‘son’. Jesus is the legal son of Joseph and the son of David via Mary’s ancestry. In John 1: 45 Philip introduces Jesus to Nathanael as “Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” In Matthew 21: 9, on his triumphal entry into Jerusalem, people shout, “Hosanna to the Son of David!”

 

The Dead Sea Scrolls also speak of two messiahs: one a military leader and the other a priest. Still other Jews expected the prophet Elijah, or the angel Michael, or Enoch, or any number of other figures to usher in the messianic age. Messiah must restore the kingdom of David to its former glory. He should win the war against Israel’s enemies.

 

Jeconiah’s curse

 

Judaic Rabbis has another objection to the legal right of Jesus to sit on the throne of David. Jeconiah was the penultimate and the last king of Judah. Joseph’s genealogy goes back through Jeconiah to King David. But there is a curse of Jeconiah which prevented his descendants from sitting on the Davidic throne.

 

Jeconiah was also known as Coniah and Jehoiachin. He was the son of Jehoiakim, the king of Judah. Jehoiakim’s original name was Eliakim. He changed his name when he became the king.

 

According to 2 Chronicles 36: 6, the king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar II came up against Jehoiakim, bound him in bronze fetters and carried him to Babylon. This might have happened when Nebuchadnezzar besieged Jerusalem in 605 BC. But some historical documents say that Jehoiakim changed allegiances from Egypt to Babylon to avoid the destruction of Jerusalem. He might have been reinstalled as a vassal king to Babylon.

 

In late 598 BC, the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II invaded Judah for a second time and laid siege to Jerusalem, which lasted for three months. Jehoiakim died before the siege ended.

 

After the death of Jehoiakim, his son Jehoiachin (Jeconiah), who was 18 years old, became the king of Judah. (2 Chronicles 36: 8). He was the nineteenth and penultimate king of Judah. He ruled on the throne only for 3 months and 10 days.

 

2 Chronicles 36: 9 Jehoiachin was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem three months and ten days. And he did evil in the sight of the LORD. 

 

According to Jewish historian Josephus, Nebuchadnezzar deposed Jeconiah, fearing that he would avenge his father's death by revolting. So in 597 BC, Nebuchadnezzar installed Zedekiah, Jehoiakim's younger brother (Jeconiah’s uncle), as king in his place. Jehoiachin (Jeconiah), his sons, other family members and many leading citizens of Jerusalem were taken into captivity to Babylon. After the death of Nebuchadnezzar, his successor released Jehoiachin. He died in Babylon and no son of him became king after him. 

 

Jeconiah was the last king of Judah in the Davidic line through Solomon. Jeconiah fathered sons during his Babylonian captivity. His the first son was Salathiel. Jeconiah was imprisoned for 37 years, and his sons grew up without him, as if he had no sons.

 

Jeconiah had seven children: Shealtiel, Malkiram, Pedaiah, Shenazzar, Jekamiah, Hoshama and Nedabiah. (1 Chronicles 3:17–18). Pedaiah was the father of Zerubbabel. But none of them ever became kings of Judah.

 

After Nebuchadnezzar II, King Amel-Marduk became the third king of Neo-Babylon Empire. He became the king in 562 BC and was overthrown and murdered in 560 BC. He is also known as Evil-Merodach or Awil-Marduk. The name means, “man of Marduk”. Marduk is the Babylonian king of gods, who was considered as the patron god of Babylon.

 

According to 2 Kings 25: 27-30, Jeconiah was released from prison "in the 37th year of the exile", in the year Amel-Marduk came to the throne. Jeconiah was given an honorable position in the royal court. But he remained in Babylon until his death. His sons also died in exile.

 

Jewish Rabbis and the Talmud Sanhedrin 37a says that Jeconiah repented of his evil doings. History and the Bible both provide corroborating evidence to support the Talmud. But his descendants were never installed on the throne of Judah.

 

After Jeconiah, his father’s brother Zedekiah became king. Zedekiah is also known as, Tzidkiyahu, Mattanyahu or or Mattaniah. He was the 20th and last king of Judah. He ruled before the final invasion of Babylon and before the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple by Nebuchadnezzar II.

 

Zedekiah was appointed as king by Nebuchadnezzar. But later, Zedekiah revolted against Babylon, and entered into an alliance with Pharaoh Hophra of Egypt. So Nebuchadnezzar invaded Judah again. (2 Kings 25: 1). Nebuchadnezzar began a siege of Jerusalem in December 589 BC. The siege lasted about thirty months. At the end of Zedekiah's 11 year reign, Nebuchadnezzar captured Jerusalem and destroyed the Temple built by King Solomon. Zedekiah and his followers attempted to escape, but they were captured on the plains of Jericho. They were taken to Riblah. The ancient town of Riblah was located on the northern frontier of the land of Canaan. There, Zedekiah saw his sons put to death. Then his own eyes were put out, he was chained and carried captive to Babylon. There he remained a prisoner until he died.

 

Zedekiah was on the throne while Jeconiah was alive. And Zedekiah perished with his sons long before Jeconiah’s death. So Jeconiah was considered Exilarch (king-in-exile), during his Babylonian captivity, His eldest son Shealtiel was regarded as the second Exilarch. But Shealtiel also died in the exile.

 

Curse of Jeconiah

The curse on Jeconiah has its beginning with his father Jehoiakim. God cursed Jehoiakim, king of Judah for his evil ways. His son Jeconiah also followed the footsteps of his father. Thus the curse be felled on him also. But the fate of the father and son were different.

 

Jeremiah 36: 30 'Therefore thus says the LORD concerning Jehoiakim king of Judah: "He shall have no one to sit on the throne of David, and his dead body shall be cast out to the heat of the day and the frost of the night. (NKJV)

 

According to the Jewish historian Josephus, Nebuchadnezzar slew Jehoiakim and some high ranking officers of Judah. The Babylonian king commanded to throw the dead body of Jehoiakim over the city wall and not to give a decent burial.

 

The curse on Jeconiah is:

 

Jeremiah 22:30 Thus says the LORD: 'Write this man down as childless, A man who shall not prosper in his days; For none of his descendants shall prosper, Sitting on the throne of David, And ruling anymore in Judah.'

 

The curse on Jehoiakim was that no one of his descendants would sit on the throne of Judah. His son, Jeconiah became the king after him. But Jeconiah reigned only for three months and ten days. This is not a considerable period to count. All the rest of his days he lived in captivity in Babylon. And none of his sons became king after him. Thus both the curses on the father and the son became true.

 

According to Matthew 1: 11, Jeconiah is the ancestor of Joseph, the husband of Mary and the foster father of Jesus. Jeconiah’s curse bars any of his descendants from David’s throne. So here raises the question: how can the Messiah be born in a cursed line?

 

Christian interpretation

Christian theologians offer four explanations to this conundrum.

 

1.   The first answer is that the genealogy in Matthew, in which Jeconiah is listed, is the genealogy of Joseph. Joseph was only the legal father of Jesus and not his biological father. Jesus was not of the seed of Jeconiah. Therefore, the curse, which would have disqualified Him as King of Judah, was not passed on to Jesus.  

 

Jesus has only one biological parent that is Mary, His mother. The genealogy of Jesus through Mary is not through Solomon, but through Nathan, the third son of King David in Bathsheba. Jeconiah was not a descendant of Nathan. Therefore, Jeconiah was not an ancestor of Mary. And thus there is no curse on Mary’s Son, Jesus.

 

2.   The second explanation is that Jeconiah repented while he was in exile in Babylon and God reversed the curse. Zerubbabel, who came to Jerusalem from the exile was Jeconiah’s grandson through Shealtiel (Matthew 1:12). Zerubbabel also appears in Luke’s genealogy of Mary.

 

Zerubbabel

With Jeconiah ended the race of kings from the house of David. It is temporally cut off until the King Messiah came. But later Zerubbabel was appointed by King Cyrus as the governor of Judah, but he did not became king. Zerubbabel was in the line of David but not through Solomon. Zerubbabel was the grandson of Neri, who descended from Nathan the son of David.

 

Zerubbabel is said to be the son of Shealtiel in Matthew’s genealogy. Shealtiel is the son of Jeconiah. Jeconiah is in the line of Solomon. Matthew’s line is:

 

Jeconiah – Shealtiel – Zerubbabel -

 

Matthew 1: 12 And after they were brought to Babylon, Jeconiah begot Shealtiel, and Shealtiel begot Zerubbabel.

 

In Luke’s genealogy, Zerubbabel is said to be the grandson of Neri. Neri is in the line of Nathan. Luke’s genealogy is:

 

Neri – Shealtiel – Zerubbabel  –

 

Luke 3: 27 the son of Joannas, the son of Rhesa, the son of Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, the son of Neri,

 

According to both genealogies, Salathiel is the father of Zerubbabel. But his grandfather differs. According to Matthew the grandfather of Zerubbabel is Jeconiah and according to Luke it is Neri. Now the explanation is that, Jechoniah may have been the natural, and Neri the legal father of Shealtiel. But Luke is following a natural line of Jesus to David, not a legal line. So a better explanation is that Neri was Salathiel’s father in law and Zerubbabel’s maternal grandfather. Thus Zerubbabel descended from David in both lines, line of Solomon and Nathan. Both Matthew and Luke might have omitted some generations in between the father and the son.   

 

Zerubbabel lead a group of Jews from Babylonian exile to Jerusalem. Josephus the Jewish historian says that Zerubbabel was a Hebrew leader of great prominence who served as the body guard for the Persian King Cyrus. Zerubbabel requested Cyrus to allow him to rebuild the Temple and to return the Temple vessels that Nebuchadnezzar brought to Babylon. The Temple vessels survived both the Babylonian captivity and the Persian invasion. Cyrus granted the request by a decree. He also appointed Zerubbabel as the governor to lead the Hebrews out of the captivity back to Jerusalem. And he was one among the Jewish leaders who rebuilt the Temple.

 

Zerubbabel was the governor of Judah ruling under Persian authority. He was not a king who ruled over an independent state of Judah. Judah was one of many provinces of the Persian Empire, not a sovereign country. The privilege of independence was lost forever with the fall of the Kingdom of Judah to Babylon in 586 B.C.

 

We assume, from God’s blessing through Prophet Haggai that the sins of his grandfather Jeconiah was forgiven.

 

Haggai 2:23 'In that day,' says the LORD of hosts, 'I will take you, Zerubbabel My servant, the son of Shealtiel,' says the LORD, 'and will make you like a signet ring; for I have chosen you,' says the LORD of hosts." (NKJV)

 

The “signet ring” imagery is found in Jeconiah’s curse as well as in Zerubbabel’s blessing. A ruler wore a unique gold signet ring bearing his name that was used to seal documents like decrees. The seal was considered more authentic than a signature. About Jeconiah God said:

 

Jeremiah 22: 24 "As I live," says the LORD, "though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, were the signet on My right hand, yet I would pluck you off; (NKJV)

 

Christian theologians cite this as a reversal of fortune on the descendants of Jeconiah. He repented about his evil days and so God forgave him. And also several rabbinic sources teach that Jeconiah repented in Babylon and that God forgave him and removed the curse.

 

Matthew traced back the genealogy of Jesus through Jeconiah because the curse on him was no longer valid.  

 

3.   The third explanation of Christian theologians is that the curse on the descendants of Jeconiah was limited to his own children, his immediate offspring. The curse says: “'Write this man down as childless, A man who shall not prosper in his days”. (Jeremiah 22: 30). “in his days” is his lifetime. The curse may be limited to his lifetime. 

 

Jeremiah’s next prophecy makes clear that David’s royal lineage had not ended. God explicitly promised another King from the branch of David:

   

Jeremiah 23: 5 "Behold, the days are coming," says the LORD, "That I will raise to David a Branch of righteousness; A King shall reign and prosper, And execute judgment and righteousness in the earth. (NKJV)

 

And again in Jeremiah 33: 14 - 17 the prophet made his second prophecy about the Davidic covenant.

 

Jeremiah 33:14 - 17 (NKJV)

14 'Behold, the days are coming,' says the LORD, 'that I will perform that good thing which I have promised to the house of Israel and to the house of Judah:

15 'In those days and at that time I will cause to grow up to David A Branch of righteousness; He shall execute judgment and righteousness in the earth.

16 In those days Judah will be saved, And Jerusalem will dwell safely. And this is the name by which she will be called: THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.'

17 "For thus says the LORD: 'David shall never lack a man to sit on the throne of the house of Israel;

 

Jeremiah 33: 20, 21 (NKJV)

20 "Thus says the LORD: 'If you can break My covenant with the day and My covenant with the night, so that there will not be day and night in their season,

21 'then My covenant may also be broken with David My servant, so that he shall not have a son to reign on his throne, and with the Levites, the priests, My ministers.

 

These verses are proofs that Jeconiah’s curse has not disqualified the “Righteous Branch,” the Messiah, from coming forth in the royal line of David.

 

4.   A fourth solution is the virgin birth of Jesus. Jesus had only one human parent, Mary. His mother was of David’s line, but not through Jeconiah (Luke 3:31). Joseph was Jesus’ legal father, but not His physical one. Thus, Jesus was of royal blood through Mary, but the curse of Jeconiah stopped with Joseph and was not passed on to Jesus.

 

After David, the lines of Joseph and Mary became separate via Solomon and Nathan. Between David and Jesus, the only names common to the genealogies of both Joseph and Mary are Shealtiel (Salathiel in Greek) and his son Zerubabbel.

 

Virgin Birth

 

The genealogies prove the virgin birth of Jesus Christ. Jesus was the Son of God the Father, begotten by the Holy Spirit. One of the basic belief of Christianity is that Jesus was born of a Jewish virgin named Mary.

 

Luke 1: 35 And the angel answered and said to her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God. (NKJV)

 

The Nicene Creed was first formulated in 325 AD. The creed was amended in 381 in the First Council of Constantinople. It states that: “We believe … in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father….”

 

The Apostle’s Creed, originated in the 4 and 5 century, affirmed the virgin birth of Jesus Christ. It says, “I believe … in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary….”

 

The Old Testament prophesied about the virgin birth and that he will be the Messiah. This prophecy is found in Isaiah 7:14.  

 

Isaiah ministered in Judah in the last third of the 8 century BC. He prophesied to the kings of Judah, like Uzziah, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. Isaiah 7 describes King Rezin of Aram and King Pekah of the Northern Kingdom of Israel marching towards Jerusalem. (Isaiah 7: 1). Isaiah met Ahaz outside Jerusalem and offered Ahaz a sign from God: “Ask for a sign from the LORD your God, anywhere down to Sheol or up to the sky.” But Ahaz replied, “I will not ask, and I will not test the LORD.” (Isaiah 7:11).

 

Isaiah then prophesied to the king and the nation

 

Isaiah 7:14 Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel. (NKJV)

 

Isaiah is prophesying the birth of a redeemer, born of a virgin, whose name would be Immanuel. Immanuel is translated as “God with us.”

 

The apostles of Jesus understood Isaiah 7: 14 to describe the virgin birth of Jesus. Matthew says:

 

Matthew 1: 22, 23 (NKJV)

22 So all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying:

23 Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel," which is translated, "God with us."

 

Objections to Isaiah 7: 14

But not all modern theologians agree with Matthew’s translation of Isaiah. Some modern Bible versions translate the word “virgin” as “the young woman shall conceive” (Jewish Publication Society, New Revised Standard Version, New English Bible, New Jerusalem Bible).

 

The Hebrew word used for “virgin” in Isaiah 7: 14 is “almah”. In Modern Hebrew, this word refers to any young woman of marital age, who may or may not be a virgin. The Hebrew word “bethulah” specifically refers to an unmarried virgin. So Jewish Rabbis argue that Matthew mistranslated Isaiah 7: 14, to build a case for the virgin birth.

 

But Christian theologians defense the translation of Matthew. The Hebrew word “bethulah” in Rabbinic Hebrew refers to a sexually pure woman. But it is not clear in what sense Isaiah used the word “almah” in the 8 century BC. The Biblical Hebrew and the Rabbinic Hebrew is not the same everywhere. Hebrew language has evolved in time, from Biblical Hebrew to Rabbinic Hebrew and to Modern Hebrew.

 

The word “almah” is used ten times in the Old Testament. It is never used to refer to a married woman. A married woman is called “ishah” in Hebrew.  “almah” is always used for a young unmarried woman. In ancient society, a young woman would usually be a virgin.

 

The Septuagint Greek translation of the Old Testament was done in the third century BC by Jewish scholars lived in Alexandria and Egypt. Tradition says that 70 Jewish sages worked out the translation. In Septuagint, the word “almah” in Isaiah 7: 14 is translated as “parthenos”. The Greek word means a “virgin”.

 

The word “parthenos” is the name of the Greek temple in Athens, which is dedicated to the goddess Athena. Goddess Athena is considered as eternally virgin.  

 

The Greek writes like Homer and the writers of the New Testament always used the word to denote a sexually pure woman. Therefore, it is logical to think that, two centuries before Christianity, Jewish writers used the word “almah” to mean a “virgin”.

 

That confirms that Mary was a virgin and Jesus was born to a virgin.

 

Messiah will be born in Bethlehem

 

When the Roman Emperor Augustus ordered for a census of the whole Roman kingdom, Joseph and Mary travelled to Bethlehem. Joseph belonged to the house of David. 

 

Luke 2: 4, 5

4    Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David,

5    to be registered with Mary, his betrothed wife, who was with child.

 

Jesus was born in Bethlehem, the city of David. And so people during His time called Jesus “son of David” (Luke18: 38, Matthew 21: 9). Nathanael said to Jesus in John.1: 49, “You are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!" 

 

According to the Jewish Scriptures, the Messiah will be born in Bethlehem. Bethlehem is the birthplace of King David. The Hebrew prophet Micah said:

 

Micah 5: 2 "But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, Though you are little among the thousands of Judah, Yet out of you shall come forth to Me The One to be Ruler in Israel, Whose goings forth are from of old, From everlasting." (NKJV)

 

Early Judaic scholars understood this passage as a messianic prophecy. Micah said, His “goings forth are from of old, From everlasting." (Micah 5:2 – NKJV). In other words, the Messiah has eternally existed. The Messiah is not a created being. The text implies a divine nature. Early Jewish interpreters understood this. Classical rabbinic texts described a pre-existent Messiah.

 

According to Micah 5: 2, the Messiah will come from the town of Bethlehem. Early Jewish commentators understood this to be a messianic prophecy describing the origins of the Messiah. Moreover, it is logical that the descendant of David should arise from his ancestral hometown, Bethlehem. The word “Bethlehem” means “house of bread.”

 

Messiah is not God or a divine Son

 

According to Judaism, the Messiah will have a human birth and human parents. He shall possess normal physical attributes. Messiah will not be a demi-god. He will not possess supernatural qualities. He is not God or a divine Son of God. He is a political and spiritual leader.

 

Judaism believes in the oneness of God. God is incorporeal and so He cannot assume a physical form. God is eternal, above time. He is infinite, beyond space. He cannot be born, and cannot die. Saying that God assumes human form makes God small, diminishing both His unity and His divinity. As the Torah says: " God is not a man”, meaning God is not mortal (Numbers 23:19 - NKJV).

 

So the Jewish leaders saw Jesus’ claim as the Son of God, a ‘blasphemy’. But some Jews, during the lifetime of Jesus found the idea that the divine could take on human form. Others might have regarded Jesus as an angel, such as the “Angel of the Lord” who appears in Genesis 16, Genesis 22, Exodus 3 and elsewhere.

 

But Christians consider Jesus to be the Son of God and God the Son. He was born of a virgin by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

 

Luke 1: 35 And the angel answered and said to her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God. (NKJV)

 

Matthew records a conversation between Jesus and Pharisees in 22:41-46. To the question of Jesus, the Pharisees answered that the Messiah is the “The Son of David”. Then Jesus quotes a verse from David’s Psalms 110:1.

 

Psalms 110:1 The LORD said to my Lord, "Sit at My right hand, Till I make Your enemies Your footstool."

 

This about the Messiah whom David calls Lord. So Messiah who is Lord for David cannot be his physical son. Here Jesus claims that He is Messiah, the son of David and the Son of God.

 

In the desert, while Jesus was being tempted, satan called Him twice “Son of God”. He was tempting Jesus to prove that He is the Son of God by doing some miracles. (Matthew 4: 3, 6). Immediately after baptism, Apostle Paul “preached the Christ in the synagogues, that He is the Son of God.” (Acts 9:20). And 1 John 4:15 says “Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.”

 

Obedience and fulfilment of Torah

 

According to the Torah a true prophet must follow the God of Israel and no other god. He must not describe God differently from the Scripture. He must not change God's word. God would never change His mind to contradict what He has already stated. The scripture is the eternal word of God.

 

There are two types of "false prophet" recognized in the Hebrew Bible:

 

1.      The one who claims to be a prophet in the name of idolatry

2.      The one who claims to be a prophet in the name of the God of Israel, but declares that any word or commandment (mitzvah) which God has said no longer applies, or makes false statements in the name of God.

 

Deuteronomy 12: 32 "Whatever I command you, be careful to observe it; you shall not add to it nor take away from it.

 

In Judaism, there is no concept of the Messiah "fulfilling the law" to free the Israelites from the obedience to the mitzvoth in Judaism. Mitzvah is a commandment of God. Traditionally, it is held that there are 613 commandments.

 

The Messiah will urge all Israelites to walk in the way of Torah. He will strengthen the breaches in the observance of the Law. He will be well oriented with the Law of Moses. He will interpret every detail accurately. He will be an inspired judge. The Torah states that anyone coming to change the scripture is a false prophet.

 

Deuteronomy 13: 1 - 5 (NKJV)

1    "If there arises among you a prophet or a dreamer of dreams, and he gives you a sign or a wonder,

 2   "and the sign or the wonder comes to pass, of which he spoke to you, saying, 'Let us go after other gods' -which you have not known-'and let us serve them,'

 3   "you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams, for the LORD your God is testing you to know whether you love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

 4   "You shall walk after the LORD your God and fear Him, and keep His commandments and obey His voice, and you shall serve Him and hold fast to Him.

5    "But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death, because he has spoken in order to turn you away from the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of bondage, to entice you from the way in which the LORD your God commanded you to walk. So you shall put away the evil from your midst.

 

Thus, any divergence from the Law by Jesus would disqualify him as a prophet in Judaism. The Bible portrays Balaam as an example of a false prophet who could speak directly with God and could work miracles.

 

But it seems that in the gospels, Jesus contradicts the Torah and cancels some of them. For example, in John 9: 6 and 7 Jesus “spat on the ground and made clay with the saliva; and He anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay.” Then Jesus commanded the man "Go, wash in the pool of Siloam". Thus the blind man was healed. But the Pharisees exclaimed: “He does not keep the Sabbath”. (John 9:16).

 

Did Jesus contradicted any laws?

Jesus was in the temple on an early morning. The Scribes and Pharisees brought to Him a woman who was caught in the act of fornication. They wanted Jesus, as a Rabbi to sentence her to death according the laws of Moses. The Law in Leviticus 20: 10 and Deuteronomy 22: 22 says that both the adulterer and adulteress should be put to death. But here the scribes and the Pharisees has brought only the woman.

 

Here Jesus made a classic reinterpretation of the Mosaic Law. He did not cancel the Mosaic Law. He did not make any change to the Law. He simply explained how to execute the Law according to the heart of the Law giver.

 

John 8: 7 So when they continued asking Him, He raised Himself up and said to them, "He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first." (NKJV)

 

So the crowd was convinced of their sin and left the woman. Jesus was the only person there without sin. He could throw the first stone at her. But he was the judge not the accuser. So he decided to let her free.

 

John 8: 11 She said, "No one, Lord." And Jesus said to her, "Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more." (NKJV)

 

This was the style and pattern of Jesus in the interpretation of Laws. As a Rabbi, He had the authority to reinterpret the Laws.

 

Fulfill and destroy

Matthew 5 to 7 records the famous Sermon on the Mount. It is a declaration of the manifesto of the Kingdom of God. Throughout the sermon, Jesus picks up different Laws and reinterprets them according to the values of His Kingdom.

 

Matthew 5:17,18  (NKJV)

17 "Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill.

18 "For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.

 

In verse 18 Jesus affirms that not one jot or coma or one title in the Law will be cancelled till heaven and earth exists. But there will be a time in future when all the Law will be fulfilled.

 

The Greek word used for “fulfilled” in verse 18 is “ginomai” (ghin'-om-ahee). This word means: to become, come into being, be brought to pass, be ended, be assembled, be finished, be fulfilled etc. So it is reasonable to assume that there will be a time when all the Laws will be brought to pass or fulfilled. And Mosaic Laws will not be in effect after its fulfilment.

 

But the Greek word used for “fulfill” in verse 17 is different. Here the word fulfil is used in contrast to another word in the same verse, “destroy”. The Greek word used for destroy is “kataluo (kat-al-oo’-o). This word means to: loosen down, disintegrate, to demolish, destroy, dissolve, come to naught, overthrow etc. This word is used to mean the loosing down a tent in order to carry it to another place.

 

So Jesus said that He came not to loosen down the Law. Not to demolish it. Not to destroy it.

 

The Greek word for fulfill, as used in verse 17 is “pleroo” (play-ro’-o). This word means: to make replete or full (like filling a fish net), level up, furnish, execute, finish a task, verify, accomplish, complete, end, expire, fulfil, fully preach, perfect etc.

 

That means Jesus came to preach the Law perfectly and fully. Something lacking in the interpretations of the Law is supplied by Jesus.

 

There were two types of Rabbis during the time of Jesus. Most of the Rabbis were Torah teachers (teachers of the law) who could only teach accepted interpretations.

 

The second group had “semikhah” or authority to make new interpretations to the Law and pass legal judgments. “Semikhah” is like the ordination in Christian churches. Jesus ministered as a Jewish rabbi who had “semikhah” or authority to make new interpretations. That is why the adulterous woman was brought to Him for legal judgment.

 

Now in Judaism, fulfilling the Torah or interpreting the Laws correctly was the task of a first century Rabbi. To interpret Scripture incorrectly so that they cannot be obeyed as God intended was to "destroy" the Torah. Jesus did not come to do away with God's Torah. He came to complete it and to show how to correctly keep it. Moreover, Jesus and his early Jewish believers continued to follow Jewish law.

 

Dishonoring the Sabbath

One of the major accusations against Jesus by the Jews of His time was that He dishonored Sabbath. Matthew in chapter 12 narrates an incident in which the disciples of Jesus broke the Law of Sabbath. As they were going through a grain field on a Sabbath, they plucked grains and ate it. Pharisees saw it as the labor of harvesting. Jesus countered them with some examples from the Old Testament where David and his men, when they were hungry, ate the showbread from the temple. Only priests were permitted to eat them. Hunger is an excuse to pass over the Law. And the priests are permitted to do servile works in connection with the temple on Sabbath also.

 

But these are not the main counter argument of Jesus. In verse 6 and 7 He declared:

 

Matthew 12: 6, 7, 8 (NKJV)

6    "Yet I say to you that in this place there is One greater than the temple.

7    "But if you had known what this means, 'I desire mercy and not sacrifice,' you would not have condemned the guiltless.

8    "For the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath."

 

The Jews esteemed nothing greater in this world than the temple. It was the meeting place of God with His people. The temple was the only worship place of God. Only God is greater than the temple. But Christ here claims that He is greater than the temple which means that He is God. So the temple is no more relevant. Building or rebuilding the temple is not necessary after Christ.

 

Jesus Christ is the fulfilment of the prophecy of Malachi.

 

Malachi 3:1 "Behold, I send My messenger, And he will prepare the way before Me. And the Lord, whom you seek, Will suddenly come to His temple, Even the Messenger of the covenant, In whom you delight. Behold, He is coming," Says the LORD of hosts. (NKJV)

 

Hebrew 3: 3 For this One has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as He who built the house has more honor than the house. (NKJV)

 

In Matthew 12: 8 Jesus makes yet another claim: He is the Lord of the Sabbath. That means He is institutor and governor of Sabbath. He has authority to change or cancel it. In Mark 2:27 Jesus interprets that Sabbath was made for humanity. It is a day of rest for humans and the earth. In Jesus the Sabbath is completed or fulfilled. He is above Sabbath. He is our rest. We have entered into that rest in Him. This too is a declaration of His Divinity.

 

Again on the same Sabbath day we see Jesus healing a man with a withered hand in the synagogue. (Matthew 12: 9 - 13).

 

So as Jesus said to the Samaritan woman, true worshipers will worship God neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem, but in spirit and truth. God is seeking such people to worship Him. (John 4:21 – 24). Thus Jesus nullified the importance of the special place of worship and the observance of Sabbath.

 

In the Gospel of Mark, for example, Jesus is said to have declared forbidden foods “clean”. This is commonly understood as a rejection of kosher dietary laws. But this is Mark’s extrapolation and not necessarily Jesus’ intention. Jesus and his earliest Jewish followers continued to follow Jewish law, as Jesus interpreted them.

 

Did Jesus claimed to be Messiah?

 

The Jewish scholars argue that there is not one verse of Scripture in the New Testament that says Jesus is the Messiah. But the first century Jewish followers of Jesus believed that Jesus was the promised Messiah. So the question is, did Jesus Himself claimed to be Messiah?

 

Luke 24: 13 - 35 narrates the story of two of his disciples who were travelling to the village called Emmaus, on the day of Jesus’ resurrection. Jesus walked with them and participated in their conversation. They were talking about the recent incidents happened in Jerusalem. They said to Jesus that, "But we were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel.” (24:21). But the chief priests and rulers condemned Him to death and crucified Him. (24:20). Besides on that day, the third day after the crucifixion, some women went to the tomb did not find His body. And Peter also went to the tomb and found it empty. The women said that they saw two angles who said that Jesus is alive (24:22-24). These all confused the disciples.

 

In response to this story, Jesus drew their attention to the prophets, from Moses down to all others (24:27). He sat with them for supper and took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized Him. Then He vanished from their sight. (24:31).

 

In verse 26 and 27 Jesus told them:  

 

Luke 24: 26, 27 (NKJV)

26 "Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?"

27 And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.

 

The two disciples returned to Jerusalem to announce the appearance of the resurrected Jesus to the rest of the disciples. While they were talking, ”Jesus Himself stood in the midst of them, and said to them, "Peace to you." (24:36). Jesus continued to speak to them about Him.

 

Luke 24: 44 Then He said to them, "These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me." (NKJV)

 

Luke 24: 46, 47 (NKJV)

46  Then He said to them, "Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day,

47 "and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.

 

Jesus carefully divided the Jewish canon into its three traditional parts: the Torah (Law), the Nevi’im (Prophets), and the Ketuvim (writings and Psalms) from which Judaism derived the acrostic Tanakh. Jesus pointed to the Hebrew canon and claimed that it described him. These words of Jesus is a clear proof that Jesus claimed to be the Messiah.

 

Messianic Age

 

According to orthodox Rabbinic Judaism, the main task of Messiah is to usher in the Messianic Age. The Messianic Age is a period of universal peace during which the entire world would worship Yahweh. Messiah will reign as king. The knowledge of God shall fill the earth and all nations shall recognize the wrongs they did to Israel. All Jews, including the 10 lost tribes, will return to Israel. Food and water will be plentiful, crops will grow with high yields and animals will not prey on each other.

 

Zephaniah 3: 9 For then I will restore to the peoples a pure language, That they all may call on the name of the LORD, To serve Him with one accord. (NKJV)

 

Isaiah 2: 4 He shall judge between the nations, And rebuke many people; They shall beat their swords into plowshares, And their spears into pruning hooks; Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, Neither shall they learn war anymore. (NKJV)

 

Zechariah 14: 9 And the LORD shall be King over all the earth. In that day it shall be-"The LORD is one," And His name one. (NKJV)

 

By the first century, the Messianic age was further associated a general resurrection of the dead, there will be a final judgment followed by universal peace. Messiah will gather all dispersed Israelites together in their Promised Land. They call it Greater Israel or Eretz Israel. Messiah will unify all the 12 tribes.

 

Isaiah 43: 5, 6 (NKJV)

5    Fear not, for I am with you; I will bring your descendants from the east, And gather you from the west;

6    I will say to the north, 'Give them up!' And to the south, 'Do not keep them back!' Bring My sons from afar, And My daughters from the ends of the earth-

7    Everyone who is called by My name, Whom I have created for My glory; I have formed him, yes, I have made him."

 

Another Judaic expectation about Messiah is that He will build the Holy Temple in its proper place.

 

Ezekiel 37:25-28 (NKJV)

25 "Then they shall dwell in the land that I have given to Jacob My servant, where your fathers dwelt; and they shall dwell there, they, their children, and their children's children, forever; and My servant David shall be their prince forever.

26 "Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them, and it shall be an everlasting covenant with them; I will establish them and multiply them, and I will set My sanctuary in their midst forevermore.

27 "My tabernacle also shall be with them; indeed I will be their God, and they shall be My people.

28 "The nations also will know that I, the LORD, sanctify Israel, when My sanctuary is in their midst forevermore."

 

Died before accomplishing the tasks

According to Judaism, a person who is killed before completing all these prophecies is not the Messiah. There is no concept of a second coming of Messiah.

 

But Jesus lived while the Second Temple existed intact. The Temple was destroyed in AD 70, only after the crucifixion of Christ. It is no yet rebuilt. And the Jews were dispersed in AD 70 and 325, after the first and the second Jewish revolt against the Romans. So Jesus did not fulfil this prophecy about Messiah.

 

No one has ever fulfilled the prophecies about the Messiah, Jews still await His coming. They reject all past Messianic claimants, including Jesus of Nazareth, Bar Cochba, Shabbtai Tzvi etc.

 

Christians believe that all these prophecies and tasks will be fulfilled at the Second Coming of Christ.

 

In Matthew 24: 30 Jesus, while He was speaking about the signs of the Last Days, spoke about His Second Coming:

 

Matthew 24: 30 "Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. (NKJV).

 

In Mark 13: 26, Jesus said: “Then they will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and glory.” In Revelation 1: 7 John wrote: “Behold, He is coming with clouds, and every eye will see Him, even they who pierced Him. And all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him. Even so, Amen.”

 

So Jesus will surely come again, not His coming, but as a King and Messiah. And He will fulfill every prophecies that is left behind at the first coming.

 

Suffering Servant

 

There are four “Servant Songs” in Isaiah. Isaiah 42, 49, 50 and 53 are considered as “Servant Songs” (Isaiah 42:1-9; 49:1-13; 50: 4-11; 52:13-53:12). These scripture passage describe the life and mission of one simply identified as the Servant of Yahweh.

 

Isaiah 42: 1 "Behold! My Servant whom I uphold, My Elect One in whom My soul delights! I have put My Spirit upon Him; He will bring forth justice to the Gentiles. (NKJV).

 

Isaiah 49: 5, 6 (NKJV)

5    "And now the LORD says, Who formed Me from the womb to be His Servant, To bring Jacob back to Him, So that Israel is gathered to Him (For I shall be glorious in the eyes of the LORD, And My God shall be My strength),

6    Indeed He says, 'It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant To raise up the tribes of Jacob, And to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will also give You as a light to the Gentiles, That You should be My salvation to the ends of the earth.'"

 

Isaiah 53: 3 – 6, 8, 10 (NKJV)

3    He is despised and rejected by men, A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.

4    Surely He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted.

5    But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed.

6    All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

 

8    He was taken from prison and from judgment, And who will declare His generation? For He was cut off from the land of the living; For the transgressions of My people He was stricken.

 

10 Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief. When You make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, And the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in His hand.

 

In this passage, Isaiah describes the servant of the Yahweh as

 

1.      Rejected by people

2.      Suffering

3.      Wounded for Israel’s transgressions

4.      Carrying the guilt of the people of Israel upon him.

5.      He was cut off from the land of the living through the sin of the people

6.      He made His soul an offering for sin

7.      He will be a light to the Gentiles. He will be God’s salvation to the ends of the earth. (Isaiah 49:6)

 

The word “wounded” in Isaiah 53:5 is “mecholal” in Hebrew. It is another form of “chalal”. The word “mecholal” means “to perforate, to pierce and hence to wound”. So many modern translations like NIV, NLT etc. use the word “pierced” instead of “wound”. So the piercing of Jesus’ hands, feet, His side and His head is a literal fulfillment of this prophecy.

 

The death of the servant is considered by the prophet to be a guilt offering. The word for “offering for sin” in Isaiah 53: 10 is “asham”. It is used in the Pentateuch for the guilt offering that the high priest offered on behalf of Israel to atone for their sins.

 

Rabbinic Judaism sees the Suffering Servant as a reference to the Jewish nation, not to the king Mashiach. The prophecy has a historical context because it speaks in the past tense. The Jewish nation has borne unspeakable injustices, under Assyria, Babylonia, Ancient Greece and ancient Rome. They are persecuted to this day.

 

Isaiah 53 follows the theme of chapter 52, describing the exile and redemption of the Jewish people. The prophecies are written in the singular form because Israel is regarded as one unit. Isaiah says, “'You are My servant, O Israel, In whom I will be glorified” (Isaiah 49:3 - NKJV). Isaiah 44:1 says, “Yet hear now, O Jacob My servant, And Israel whom I have chosen.” Isaiah 44:2 says, “Fear not, O Jacob My servant” and 52:13 says “Behold, My Servant shall deal prudently” (NKJV).

 

Isaiah states no less than 11 times in the chapters prior to 53 that the Servant of God is Israel. So the Jewish Rabbis argued that Isaiah 53 refers to the Jewish people being "bruised, crushed and as sheep brought to slaughter" at the hands of their enemies. These descriptions are used throughout Jewish scripture to graphically describe the suffering of the Jewish people (see Psalm 44).

 

But there are a considerable number of Rabbis who believe that the servant of Yahweh described in the servant songs is the Messiah. Christianity claims that the “servant songs” refer to Jesus. The prophet is foretelling that the Messiah will suffer and die for the sins of humanity. 

 

All the four “servant songs” describe the service, suffering, and exaltation of the Messiah. Messiah would be God’s meek and gentle Servant. He is a royal figure, representing Israel in its ideal form. He is the high priest, atoning for the sins of the world. Isaiah also predicts that this Servant of the Lord would deliver the world from sin.

 

Jesus was rejected by the nation, suffered, identified with those who suffered, and was martyred. His death atoned for the sins of the people.

 

Verses from these songs are quoted and applied to Jesus multiple times in the New Testament.

 

Matthew 8: 17 that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying: "He Himself took our infirmities And bore our sicknesses."

 

1 Peter 2: 24  who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness--by whose stripes you were healed.

 

Messiah will die before AD 70

 

Zechariah 12:10 describes the arrival of the Messiah to rein on David’s throne. The response of the nation is sorrow and repentance when they see that he was pierced.

 

Zechariah 12:10 "And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn. (NKJV)

 

The Second Temple literature acknowledged that the Messiah would die before he would reign. The apocryphal book of 4 Ezra says, “For My son, the Messiah shall be revealed . . . And it shall be after those years, that My son, the Messiah shall die” (4 Ezra 7:27-30).

 

Rabbinic literature also acknowledged that the Messiah would be killed before the Messianic era. But they separate the personages into two separate figures. They are Messiah ben Joseph and Messiah ben David. Messiah ben Joseph would be killed before the destruction of the temple. The second person will reign as the Messiah. One medieval commentator wrote, “When Messiah ben Joseph is killed his body will remain cast out for forty days . . . until Messiah ben David comes and brings him back to life . . . and then Messiah ben David . . . will reign in safety and peace for many days”

 

From this discussion, it is clear that the traditional Jewish view that the Messiah will come once and establish peace on earth, restore the throne of King David, and found a Messianic kingdom is only half of the narrative. This “one Messiah” view disregards the greater mission of the Messiah: to establish peace between the human and God, through the Messiah’s atoning death for sin. This first mission was described in Isaiah 53 and Zechariah 12:10. It was understood thus in Second Temple Judaism, by the Qumran community, and even within rabbinic Jewish texts.

 

Daniel’s 70 weeks

The events narrated in Daniel 9 happens while he was in exile in Babylon. Daniel was a young man when he was taken to Babylon (modern day Iraq) by Nebuchadnezzar. In 605 BC, Judah became a vassal state of Babylon. The first wave of deportation from Judah to Babylon might have happened during that period. Daniel would have been in the first batch of Jews who were deported. He was around 16 years old at the time. By the time of the events described in Daniel 9, he became an old man. He understood that the seventy years' captivity prophesied by Jeremiah was terminating.

 

Jeremiah 25:11, 12 (NKJV)

11 And this whole land shall be a desolation and an astonishment, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years.

12 Then it will come to pass, when seventy years are completed, that I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, the land of the Chaldeans, for their iniquity,' says the LORD; 'and I will make it a perpetual desolation.

 

Jeremiah 29:10 For thus says the LORD: After seventy years are completed at Babylon, I will visit you and perform My good word toward you, and cause you to return to this place. (NKJV)

 

So he sat in fervent prayer before God. He was seeking a divine revelation about the time in which Jerusalem and the temple will be rebuilt (Daniel 9: 1-19). As an answer to his prayer, God sent the angel Gabriel to inform him about the seventy prophetic weeks or four hundred and ninety natural years (70*7 = 490). Gabriel's message was for Israel, not for the New Testament Church.

 

Daniel 9: 24 – 27  (NKJV)

24 "Seventy weeks are determined For your people and for your holy city, To finish the transgression, To make an end of sins, To make reconciliation for iniquity, To bring in everlasting righteousness, To seal up vision and prophecy, And to anoint the Most Holy.

25 "Know therefore and understand, That from the going forth of the command To restore and build Jerusalem Until Messiah the Prince, There shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; The street shall be built again, and the wall, Even in troublesome times.

26 "And after the sixty-two weeks Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself; And the people of the prince who is to come Shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end of it shall be with a flood, And till the end of the war desolations are determined.

27 Then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week; But in the middle of the week He shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of abominations shall be one who makes desolate, Even until the consummation, which is determined, Is poured out on the desolate."

 

Daniel in his prayer asked about Israel’s imminent return to their Home Land. But God is giving him a revelation of another seventy weeks. Gabriel informed Daniel that God shall bring back the whole Israel to their land and will establish the Messianic Kingdom. But this would not happened at the end of the seventy year captivity in Babylon. Messianic kingdom will come at the end of another seventy week years that is 490 years. This is a time period for Israel and Jerusalem.

 

Gabriel gave Daniel a chronology of events.

 

1.      The temple will be rebuilt in times of trouble

2.      The Messiah will arrive

3.      The Messiah will be cut off or be killed

4.      After his death, Jerusalem and the temple will be destroyed by an army.

 

This prophecy foretells the death of Jesus. As verse 25 says, this prophecy will start to happen from the date of the edict to rebuild Jerusalem.   

 

There are four stages of rebuilding of the temple and the city.

 

1.      Cyrus’ decree to rebuild the temple in 538 B.C. (2 Chronicles 36:22-23; Ezra 1:1-4; 5:13; 6:1-5).

2.      Decree of Darius I confirming Cyrus’ decree in 520 B.C. (Ezra 6:6-12).

3.      Artaxerxes Longimanus’ decree in 458 B.C. (Ezra 7:11-26).

4.      Artaxerxes Longimanus’ decree authorizing Nehemiah to rebuild Jerusalem in 445 B.C. (Nehemiah 2:1-8).

 

The decrees of Cyrus and Darius I and the first decree of Artaxerxes do not mention the rebuilding the city of Jerusalem. So the angel Gabriel was talking about the last decree by Artaxerxes. This was proclaimed about 445 BC. So the beginning of the seventy week years or 490 years, begins in 445 BC. It happened 90 years after the first captives returned to rebuild the temple.

 

The angel Gabriel divides the 490 year period into three time period.

 

1.      Seven week years, 49 years - The first period of seven weeks is the time of restoration and repairing of Jerusalem. Ezra and Nehemiah were commissioned by the Media-Persian kings to restore the sacred constitutions and civil establishments of the Jews. This work lasted for forty-nine years after the second decree of Artaxerxes. (445-395 B.C.)

 

The prophecy says that, “The street shall be built again, and the wall, Even in troublesome times.” This was fulfilled in the days of Nehemiah. The streets of Jerusalem was filled with debris and the wall broken down. This was “troublesome times”. 

 

2.      Sixty two week years, 434 years. This is the period after the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem to the first coming of Christ.

 

From proclamation of the royal command to restore Jerusalem, “Until Messiah the Prince, There shall be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks”. Verse 26 says, “And after the sixty-two weeks Messiah shall be cut off”. This is a clear prophecy about the death of Jesus Christ.  Jesus died on the cross 483 years after rebuilding the city.

 

Jesus died after 62 week years but not during the last seven week year. Gabriel said: "And after the sixty-two weeks Messiah shall be cut off”. It implies an interlude or time gap after the 62 week years and the last 7 week years.

 

Daniel 9: 26 foretells another historic event also. This would happen after the 62 weeks and after the Messiah “shall be cut off”.

 

Daniel 9: 26 … And the people of the prince who is to come Shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end of it shall be with a flood, And till the end of the war desolations are determined.

 

This prophecy was fulfilled when the Roman army came to Jerusalem and destroyed the temple and the city. This historic event occurred in AD 70. That means, the Messiah will come, minster and will be killed before AD 70. He will be killed before the destruction of the temple and before the Jews are dispersed from their land.

 

3.      One week years, 7 years. This is the last week year in Daniel’s 70 week year prophecy. This refers to the seven years of tribulation. This period has not yet happened. It will occur in future when “… he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week (Daniel 9:27). This will happen before the Messianic Age.  

 

Conclusion on messianic prophecy

 

Followers of Yeshua have maintained for almost two thousand years that Jesus is the promised Messiah of Israel and was clearly described in the pages of the Hebrew Scriptures. Gospel stories about Jesus healing the sick, raising the dead, and proclaiming the arrival of the Kingdom of God suggest that the gospel writers regarded him as Messiah. Moreover, according to Luke, Jesus Himself has claimed that He is the Messiah.

 

His tasks as Messiah was only partially fulfilled at His first coming. He will come again, soon, to fulfill the rest of the prophecies. “Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus!” (Revelation 22:20).