Prophecies about the Coming Messiah
Robert C. Newman
One of the most impressive sections of prophecy in the OldTestament is found in the book of Isaiah, chapters 40 through 56. It is often called the AServant@section because of its many references to a figure whom God calls Amy servant@or the like. This Servant isfrequently identified with the nation Israel (Isa 41:8; 44:1, 21; 45:4; 48:20;and 49:3), but elsewhere he is just as clearly distinguished from Israel (Isa42:6; 49:5-6, 7, 8; 50:5; 53:8, not to mention numerous characteristics that donot fit the nation as a whole). Probably the best explanation for this peculiarity is that suggested byMacRae: from the viewpoint of responsibility, Israel as a whole was called byGod to do a particular work, but as regards accomplishment of the work, it willbe done by an individual Israelite.
It has sometimes been suggested that the Servant is apersonification of Israel Bparticularly its righteous remnant or an ideal Israel. But the lack of any contextual hints ofpersonification, together with very specific details, rather argue that aparticular individual is in view.
Besides scattered references to the Servant throughoutIsaiah 40-56, there are several extended passages in which his character andlabors are detailed. These are Isa42:1-7; 49:1-12; 50:4-11; and 52:13-53:12. Numerous features in these passages point to the Servantbeing Jesus as he is described for us historically and theologically in the NewTestament. But to counter claimsthat the New Testament was explicitly written to fit these predictions, we herelook at one of them which happened long after New Testament times and which theNew Testament writers could not have engineered.
In Isa 42:6-7 we are told:
(6) I, the LORD, have called youin righteousness; I will take hold of your hand. I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for thepeople and a light for the Gentiles, (7) to open eyes that are blind, to freecaptives from prison, and to release from the dungeon those who sit indarkness.
The Servant is to be a light to the Gentiles.
This theme is picked up and developed further in Isaiah 49,where in verses 5-7 we hear:
(5) And now the LORD says B he who formed me in the wombto be his servant, to bring back Jacob to him and gather Israel to himself, forI am honored in the eyes of the LORD and my God has been my strength B (6) he says: AIt is too small a thing foryou to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those ofIsrael I have kept, I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that you maybring my salvation to the ends of the earth.@ (7) This is what the LORD says B the Redeemer and Holy One ofIsrael Bto him who was despised and abhorred by the nation, to the servant of rulers: AKings will see you and riseup, princes will see and bow down, because of the LORD, who is faithful, theHoly One of Israel, who has chosen you.@
Here the Servant=sbeing a light to the Gentiles is explained as Abring[ing]my salvation to the ends of the earth,@suggesting that the phrases in Isa 42:7 about opening blind eyes and freeingcaptives are either eschatological (referring to events at the end of the age)or are spiritual (rescuing people from spiritual blindness and from captivityto sin). But in any case theServant=s work isto have a powerful effect. Though Adespised and abhorred by the nation,@ even rulers of the Gentiles will bowdown to him.
Has there ever been any Israelite that fits thesewords? Not even Albert Einstein,though he has received widespread honor for his scientific discoveries and hasbeen the most respected Jew of recent centuries.
But what about Jesus? He is the only Jewish person Band one who claimed to be the Messiah at that Bwho has started a world religion of Gentiles. Before the first century AD, only the Jews and a few Greekphilosophers were believers in one God. Only a small percentage of the world=spopulation were even aware of the Hebrew Scriptures. Most worshiped a whole committee of gods, who set rather poorexamples for their followers. Theresulting level of morality was understandably quite low. But today those who believe in one Godinclude not only the Jews (14.2 million), but also the predominantly GentileChristians (1.4 billion). We couldalso include the Muslims (723 million), as the rise of Islam was at least anindirect result of Christianity. Thus about one-half the world=spopulation now claims allegiance to the God of Abraham, most of these as aresult of the work of Jesus.
Even neglecting Islam and most Jews, about one-third of theworld=s peopleaccept Jesus as the Messiah. Theyare found on every continent and in nearly every country: both in the moredeveloped nations (790 million) and less developed (643 million); in theWestern nations (547 million), the Third World (532 million) and even inCommunist countries (254 million). Truly Jesus of Nazareth has become alight to the Gentiles as news of him has spread throughout the world.
Another striking prophecy points to the time of the comingof the Messiah. This is the prophecy of Daniel=sseventy Aweeks@ found in Daniel chapter 9.
According to the narrative at that point, the prophet Danielhas recently come to understand from the Scriptures that Athe desolation of Jerusalem would lastseventy years.@ Apparently Daniel realizes thatthe time must be about up, so he begins to pray to God, confessing his sins andthose of his people, asking God to restore the city for the sake of his Name. While he is praying, the angel Gabrielis sent to him with the following message (Dan 9:24-27):
(24) Seventy >sevens= are decreed for your peopleand your holy city to finish transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone forwickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision andprophecy and to anoint the most holy. (25) Know and understand this: From the issuing of the decree to restoreand rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, the ruler, comes, there will beseven >sevens,= and sixty-two >sevens.= It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in timesof trouble. (26) After thesixty-two >sevens,= the Anointed One will be cutoff and have nothing. The peopleof the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come like a flood: Warwill continue until the end, and desolations have been decreed. (27) He will confirm a covenant withmany for one >seven.= In the middle of the >seven= he will put an end tosacrifice and offering. And on awing [of the temple] he will set up an abomination that causes desolation,until the end that is decreed is poured out on him.
There has been considerable dispute over the meaning of thispassage, especially since the rise of theological liberalism in which it isclaimed that the book of Daniel was written in the Maccabean period (c165 BC)instead of the sixth century BC in which the narrative is set. Three items in particular will concernus here: (1) Is the passage speaking of one Anointed One or two? (2) What isthe unit of time measurement used here? (3) What is the starting point for the time-span here pictured?
Modern translations fall into two classes regarding how toconstrue the syntax of verses 25 and 26. The King James Version and a number of more conservative translations[5]agree with the quotation above, in which it appears that the prophecy expectsone Anointed One (or Messiah) to come and be cut off at the end of 7 + 62 >sevens.= The Revised Standard Version and anumber of more liberal translationsinstead read the text as saying there will be two Anointed Ones, one coming atthe end of seven >sevens,= the other after a further sixty-two >sevens=:
(25) Know therefore andunderstand that from the going forth of the word to restore and build Jerusalemto the coming of an anointed one, a prince, there shall be seven weeks. Then for sixty-two weeks, it shall bebuilt again with squares and moat, but in a troubled time. (26) And after the sixty-two weeks, ananointed one shall be cut off, and shall have nothing....
This latter translation follows the old Masoreticpunctuation of the Hebrew Bible, where a division in the sense is made betweenthe seven weeks and the sixty-two weeks. It does explain the peculiarcombination of 7 and 62 instead of their sum 69.
In spite of these facts, the Masoretic punctuation may notdate back before the ninth or tenth century AD,and the parallelism of the passage favors the former translation. In the Hebrew, the phrase rendered Arestore and rebuild@ consists of the same pair of verbs asare translated Abuiltagain@ later inthe verse. Likewise the word AMessiah/Anointed One@ is repeated. This parallelism may be sketched as follows:
From the going forth of the word tobuild again Jerusalem
To Messiah the Prince shall be 7 weeks and 62 weeks.
Plaza and moat shall be builtagain...
And after 62 weeks Messiah shall be cut off...
This parallelism suggests that the passage is structured asa summary statement of two lines inwhich two events and two time-periods are mentioned, followed by several linesin which the details of each event are spelled out in turn. Thus we should expect one Messiah oranointed one, whose cutting off occurs after 69 weeks from the starting point. Perhaps the first seven weeks, if onemay hazard a guess, involve the rebuilding of the city.
The usual procedure in interpreting this passage is toassume that the prophecy intends by the word >seven= or >week= a period of seven years, and then toproceed to make the calculation using units of years. Withthe most likely starting point (the one we shall suggest below), this has theanointed one cut off about 39 AD. As a result, most conservatives have opted for an earlier starting pointor suggested that the years are actually >propheticyears= of only360 days. None of this is necessary.
The unit of measurement used here in Daniel is the >week=or >seven,= not the year. The context, and possibly the unusualplural used for this word here, suggests that the author intends us tounderstand the seven-year sabbatical land-use cycle rather than the seven-dayweek.[10] The biblical commands regarding thissabbatical cycle are given in Exodus 23:10-11 and Leviticus 25:3-7, 18-22. The Exodus passage reads: AFor six years you are to sow yourfields and harvest your crops, but during the seventh year let the land lieunplowed and unused.@
It is interesting that our context in Daniel 9 seems topoint to this usage as well. Daniel has been concerned about the desolation of Jerusalem and the factthat the Israelites are scattered from their land. He has just learned Afrombooks@ thatthis desolation will last seventy years. The prophecy of Jeremiah supplies the time-element for this scatteringand desolation (Jer 25:11-12; 29:10), but it appears that Lev 26:32-35 suppliesthe rationale: If Israel did not keep the sabbatical-year regulation, God wouldexpel them from the land until the land could Aenjoyits sabbaths.@[11]
Various suggestions have been made for the starting point ofthese seventy >sevens=: (1) God=sword at the fall of Jerusalem (586 BC; Jer 25:11-12; 29:10); (2) Cyrus= word in allowing the captives toreturn to Jerusalem (537 BC; 2 Chron 36:23; Ezra 1:2); (3) Artaxerxes= commission to Ezra (458 BC; Ezra4:11-12, 23); (4) Artaxerxes=commission to Nehemiah (445 BC; Neh 2:1-6). Of these four, only the lastactually issued in the rebuilding of the city wall. In thus making Jerusalem fortified again, it became inancient parlance once more a city and no longer a village. We thus follow thisfourth alternative, and Neh 2:1 dates Artaxerxes=sending Nehemiah to Jerusalem to the twentieth year of Artaxerxes 1, namely 445BC.[13] So this is our starting point.
Now we must make the calculation forward from 445 BC. But unlike many others, we shall usethe actual sabbatical cycles as units ofmeasurement rather than just adding 7 x 69 years to the starting point, sincethis follows the actual usage in Daniel. Recent work by Ben Zion Wacholder has reviewed all the ancient data forthe location of the sabbatical cycles in antiquity, and he finds the moderncycle in error by one year. We will use Wacholder=s numbers rather than the traditionalcycles, but this will turn out to make no difference in our result.
The calculation is very simple. Our starting point, 445 BC, falls in the seven-year cycle449-442 BC, of which the last year, from September 443 to September 442, is theseventh or sabbatical year. Usingthe usual Jewish inclusive method of counting, 449-442 is the first >seven=of Daniel=sprophecy. The second is 442-435BC, and so on, down to the transition from BC to AD, where we need to rememberthat 1 BC is immediately followed by AD 1, with no zero in between. The 69th cycle followingArtaxerxes=commission is AD 28-35, just the time that Jesus of Nazareth was Acut off@in Palestine while claiming to be God=sMessiah!
| BC | | AD |
| 449-442 | 442-435 | 435-428 | | 14-21 | 21-28 | 28-35 |
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | | 67th | 68th | 69th |
| ^ 445 - Artaxerxes= decree | | Jesus= crucifixion - 30 + |
Some may be concerned that Daniel says Aafter the sixty-two >sevens= Messiah will be cut off,@ whereas by our calculation thecrucifixion occurs on the 62nd>seven= (the 69th, counting thefirst 7). But this, too, is aconventional Jewish idiom, in which Aafter@ means Aafterthe beginning of.@ Noticethat Jesus=resurrection is alternatively spoken of as occurring Aafter three days@(Matt 27:63; Mark 8:31) and also Aon the third day@(Matt 20:19; Mark 9:31).
If instead we follow the traditional scheme for the locationof the sabbatical cycles instead of Wacholder=s,the 69th cycle only shifts by one year, to AD 27-34, which stillfits equally well. Likewise anerror by a year or two on either end Bfor Artaxerxes= 20thyear or the date of the crucifixion Bwould not change the result. Theprediction fits Jesus even allowing for the largest possible uncertainties inchronology!
How unusual are these predictions? We here attempt some estimation of probabilities.
The ALightto the Nations@prophecy, in the course of over 2000 years since it was made, has beenfulfilled in a rather spectacular manner. The largest religion in the world today was founded by a Jew, who hasturned multitudes of pagan Gentiles into worshipers of the God of Abraham. How do we calculate the probability ofsomething like this happening? Wemay, I think, assume that the founder of the world=slargest religion must belong to some people group. Then what fraction of the world=spopulation, at the time the prediction was made, or the time it was fulfilled,were Jews? The current fraction ofJews in the world is .3%. In spiteof the holocaust, the fraction of Jews living today is probably higher than inantiquity, since the Jews have participated in the huge population expansion offirst world countries and many ethnic groups have not. But we will stick with .3%. Thus there is antecedently about 1chance in 300 that this prophecy will come true.
What fraction of famous Jews would be Adespised and abhorred by the nation@ (Isa 49:7)? Not a very large fraction normally. Like any ethnic group, Jews tend totake pride in those who have done well in the larger society. Of course, Jesus is viewed as areligious innovator, and the fraction of Jewish religious innovators who areabhorred by the Jews is doubtless closer to one than in non-religiouscases. But are Spinoza andEinstein abhorred by the nation? Anyway the prophecy doesn=tsay he will be a religious innovator, and one of the standard objections against the Messiahship of Jesus is his rejection bythe Jews! I think there issomething unusual going on here, and I incline to give this one chance inten. Total probability on Alight to the nations,@ 1 in 3000.
How about Daniel=sseventy weeks prophecy? What isthe chance that the prophet will accidently hit Jesus at a distance of hundredsof years? The size of his Agunsight@is seven years. The size of the prophetic span given is 490 years. One chance in 70. But there is no antecedent reason whythe prophet need limit himself to 490 years in the sweep of his prophecy. If we took instead the length of Jewishhistory up to the time of fulfilment, that would be about 1500 years (fromMoses) or 2000 years (from Abraham), one chance in 200 or 1 in 300. If we took the length of Jewish historyto date, about 1 in 500 to 1 in 600. Let=s try 1in 200.
Compare this with the liberal alternative that says somepseudo-Daniel was Apredicting@ the Maccabean persecution after thefact using one of the starting points mentioned above. Taking the target to be 170 BC and theseventy weeks to be 490 years, the starting point would be 660 BC, which missesthe four alternative starting points listed on page 5 as follows: (1) by 70years, (2) by 120, (3) by 190, and (4) by 215 years! This is one of the reasons that convinced me thatcritical BHumean B biblicalscholarship is bankrupt.
There are other impressive Messianic prophecies. The prediction of the suffering servantin Isaiah 53 (actually 52:13-53:12) comes to mind. See the detailed discussions in Aston and MacRae.[15] Aston finds the following featuresin this passage. (1) The sufferingservant is portrayed in detailed features as a real person. (2) He is an innocent sufferer. (3) He is a voluntary sufferer. (4) He is an obedient, humble andsilent sufferer. (5) His sufferingsprings from love for sinners, including his executioners, who act inignorance. (6) His suffering isforeordained by God in love, and fulfills the divine intention and purpose. (7) His suffering is vicarious orsubstitutionary. (8) His sufferingis redemptive and spiritual in nature. (9) His suffering ends in death. (10) His death gives way to resurrection. (11) His atoning work leads the straying people toconfession and repentance. (12)His redemptive work inaugurates a victorious life of kingly glory. Obviously, many of these features referto phenomena which cannot be directly seen in human history. But what is clear is that they arecentral to the New Testament portrayal of Jesus, the one Messianic claimant whohas founded a world religion of Gentiles and who was cut off in just the perioddesignated by Daniel! What are thechances that all these things could plausibly be applied to an individual whoalso shows up at the right time and does the right things? Can you specify even one othercandidate in the first century AD? Or in any century? Surelythe probability for this is far smaller than 1 in a thousand.
Then there is the suffering person depicted in Psalm 22,whose cry to God for help is reported by two of the Gospel writers to have beenshouted by Jesus from the cross. This person (1) feels abandoned by God but (2) trusts himcompletely. (3) He is despised andmocked by the people who surround him. (4) They have pierced his hands and feet, (5) cast lots for his clothing,(6) and subjected him to some situation in which he is weak, terribly thirsty,and his bones are out of joint. (7) Although he is Alaidin the dust of death,@God somehow rescues him. (8) The effects of these events will go down throughthe future generations and to the ends of the earth, (9) so that all thefamilies of the nations will turn to the Lord and bow down to him. Though some of these features areregularly dismissed from being real fulfillments by assuming that the Gospelwriters ransacked this passage for details to use in describing Jesus= death, it remains a fact that thispassage strikingly fits death by crucifixion, an experience that Jesuscertainly endured. What fractionof people since this Psalm was written have died by a death consistent withthese details? One in a thousand? One in a million?
So, to summarize the probabilities:
Light to the nations (Isaiah 42 & 49): 1in 3000
Seventy weeks prophecy (Daniel 9): 1in 200
Suffering servant (Isaiah 53): 1in 1000
Abandoned by God (Psalm 22): 1in 1000
Cumulative probability 1in 600,000,000,000
1in 600 trillion!
I have no fear of entrusting my destiny to Jesus and hisclaims!
.Allan A. MacRae, The Gospel of Isaiah(Chicago: Moody, 1977; reprint, Hatfield, PA: IBRI, 1992), pp. 61-62.
.Frederick A. Aston, ATheWork of the Messiah,@in The Evidence of Prophecy, ed. RobertC. Newman (Hatfield, PA: IBRI, 1998), pp. 121-124.
[3].Statistics from David B. Barrett, World Christian Encyclopedia (New York: Oxford, 1982), pp. 4, 6.
.Including the NIV, NASB, Living Bible, Berkeley Version, Amplified Bible, andthe Jerusalem Bible.
.Including the Jewish Publication Society=sversion, the NEB, the Smith-Goodspeed and Moffatt translations, and the NewAmerican Bible.
.See, for example, K. Elliger and W. Rudolph, Biblica Hebraica Stuttgartensia editio minor (Stuttgart: Deutsche Biblegesellschaft,1984), p. 1404.
.Ernst Wurtwein, The Text of the Old Testament (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1957), p. 19.
.As suggested in the Berkeley Version. The Smith-Goodspeed and the New English Bible imply such aninterpretation by translating verse 25b: Aforsixty-two weeks it shall stay rebuilt / remain restored,@but these translations of the verb shubfind no warrant in the lexicons and merely show the problem of adopting theMasoretic punctuation.
.Francis Brown, S. R. Driver and C. A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexiconof the Old Testament (Oxford: Clarendon,1966): 988-989; Ludwig Koehler and Walter Baumgartner, The Hebrew andAramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament 5vols. (Leiden: Brill, 1994-2000), 4:1383-1384.
.The author of 2 Chron 36:21 explicitly applies this reasoning to explain thelength of the Babylonian captivity.
.See J. Barton Payne, Encyclopedia of Biblical Prophecy (New York: Harper and Row, 1973), pp. 383-386.
.Jack Finegan, Handbook of Biblical Chronology (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1964), section 336.
.Ben Zion Wacholder, ATheCalendar of Sabbatical Cycles During the Second Temple and the Early RabbinicPeriod,@ HebrewUnion College Annual 44(1973):153-196. A complete tablefrom 519 BC to AD 441 is given on pp. 185-196.
.FrederickA. Aston, AThe Workof the Messiah,@ in TheEvidence of Prophecy, ed. Robert C. Newman(Hatfield, PA: Interdisciplinary Biblical Research Institute, 1988), pp119-127; Allan A. MacRae, The Gospel of Isaiah (Chicago: Moody, 1977; reprint Hatfield, PA:Interdisciplinary Biblical Research Institute, 1992), pp 129-150.