Question: Is Jesus the promised Messiah of the Old Testament?

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Question: Is Jesus the promised Messiah of the Old Testament?

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Introduction to Question

The question of whether or not Jesus is the promised Jewish messiah is fundamental to the claims of Christianity, Judaism, and, by extension, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

All three groups accept the Hebrew Bible (comprising the books of Genesis through Malachi) as Holy Scripture and take note of the prophecies of a figure that would come as the Messiah. The word Messiah comes from the Hebrew word Meshiach which means “anointed one”.

BYU Professor Trevan Hatch summarizes the content of the prophecies and the expectations that Jews had of the Messiah prior to Jesus’ coming. Those include:

• He would be a preexistent figure with some divine qualities.
• All people would worship him
• He would be a king
• He would reestablish the Davidic dynasty
• His kingdom would be everlasting
• He would have authority over all nations.
• He would lead Israel.
• He would judge the wicked and overthrow Israel’s foreign enemies.
• He would be associated with righteousness.
• He would heal the sick, restore sight to the blind, and raise the dead.

Hatch writes that “[w]e must be careful not to assume that all Jews expected the messiah to be and do all these things. Some Jews may have expected some of these outcomes while rejecting others. This list is simply a conglomeration of what is apparent in pre-Christian Jewish texts regarding messianic expectations.” Joshua M. Matson notes that "[w]hile scholars still struggle to reach a consensus concerning the extent to which messianism influenced the formation and beliefs of Jewish communities in the Second Temple period, they widely recognize a body of ancient texts that appear to have served as the foundation for messianic expectations. This body includes texts in the Hebrew Bible (Genesis 49:8–12; Numbers 24:15–19; 2 Samuel 7:12–17; Isaiah 11:1–9; Psalm 89:36–38; Amos 9:11–15; and Jeremiah 23:5–8; 33:15–18) and expansions on biblical traditions in nonbiblical texts (Psalms of Solomon 17–18; 4 Ezra 13; 2 Baruch 72–74; and texts from the Dead Sea Scrolls like 1QM V and 4Q175)." Thus, while it might be enlightening and inspiring to see Jesus fulfill all of the expectations listed above, it might not be necessary in order to establish his messiahship.

Some Jews expected there to be one figure that would satisfy all of these requirements with one and only one arrival or advent. Others thought that there would be two seperate figures that would satisfy these requirements. Still others thought that there would be one figure but that he or she would satisfy these requirements with two arrivals or comings. It is this last one that Christians have held onto as the basis of their belief in Jesus as the Messiah.

Many Jews today believe that Jesus is the Messiah. Many have converted to Chrisitianity or become affiliated with what is known as the Messianic Judaism movement. Conservative Jewish scholars have embraced Jesus as at least a plausible candidate for the Jewish Messiah. For example, Daniel Boyarin, the Taubman Professor of Talmudic Culture and rhetoric at the University of California, Berkeley, argues in his book The Jewish Gospels: The Story of the Jewish Christ (2012) that "[t]he coming of the Messiah...was fully imagined, in detail, in ancient Jewish texts."

How well does Jesus hold up to these messianic requirements? What other issues must be dealt with when establishing Jesus as the Messiah? This article attempts to answer these questions.

A Few Interpretive Considerations

We first need to consider some ground rules for the discussion since, with different ground rules, the conclusions we arrive at become drastically different. Exactly what the author means by that will be explained.

Double Fulfillment for Prophecy?

One of the major disagreements that Jews and Christians have over the interpretation of the Hebrew Bible and especially as it pertains to the question of Jesus’ messiaship is whether or not a prophecy can have multiple fulfillments. Let’s take Isaiah 7:14 as our example.

Isaiah 7:14 is one of the most oft-cited and oft-debated passages of scripture as it regards Jesus. The text reads:

14 Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a asign; bBehold, a cvirgin shall conceive, and bear a dson, and shall call his name eImmanuel.

Jews and Christians debate two specific issues as it regards this passage:

1. The first is whether or not the word “virgin” here is an accurate transaltion of the Hebrew almah. Jews who reject Jesus as Messiah claim that almah simply means young woman rather than virgin.
2. The second is whether the prophecy can have two fulfillments because the prophecy could refer to King Hezekiah who was contemporary with Isaiah.

We’ll disregard the first issue in this article, though it has been more thoroughly explored elsewhere.

The second issue is one that is crucial for settling the debate of Jesus' messiahship

Other Messianic Expectations

There were other expectations that certain Jews had of the Messiah. One of these was that Jesus would be a triumphant warrior over Jerusalem's enemies. Thus when Jesus came as a humble carpenter's son born in Nazareth, many Jews didn't believe his claims.

Notes