Old Testament messianic prophecies quoted in the New Testament
The New Testament frequently cites Jewish scripture to support the claim of the Early Christians that Jesus was the promised Jewish Messiah, but only a handful of these citations are actual predictions in their original contexts.
The majority of these quotations and references are taken from the Book of Isaiah, but they range over the entire corpus of Jewish writings. Orthodox Jews do not regard any of these as having been fulfilled by Jesus, and in some cases do not regard them as messianic prophecies at all. Old Testament prophecies about Jesus are either not thought to be prophecies by critical scholars or do not explicitly refer to the Messiah. According to Jesus Seminar fellow Robert Miller, historical criticism is unable to argue for the fulfillment of prophecy or that Jesus was indeed the Messiah because he fulfilled messianic prophecies—as historical criticism has no way to "construct such an argument" within that academic method.
Overview: prophecy and biblical scholarship
The study of history, including biblical history, is based on methodological naturalism.Historical criticism cannot take accounts of supernatural intervention at face value, because to do so would be a violation of the laws of nature within history. Historical criticism cannot first maintain that Jesus fulfilled messianic prophecies and then take that fulfillment as proof that he was indeed the messiah; there are also scholars who attempt to harmonize their belief that Jesus fulfilled prophecy with the findings of historical-critical exegesis by creating a place for that belief within that academic method, but this also is not valid scholarship.
The Hebrew scriptures were an important source for the New Testament authors. There are 27 direct quotations number in the gospel of Mark, 54 in Matthew, 24 in Luke, and 14 in John, and the influence of the scriptures is vastly increased when allusions and echoes are included, with half of Mark's gospel being made up of allusions to and citations of the scriptures. Matthew contains all Mark's quotations and introduces around 30 more, sometimes in the mouth of Jesus, sometimes as his own commentary on the narrative, and Luke makes allusions to all but three of the Old Testament books.
Prophecies considered fulfilled
Daniel 9:24-27
References to "most holy", "anointed" and "prince" have been interpreted as speaking of Jesus, and the phrase "anointed shall be cut off" as pointing to his crucifixion, the "people of the prince who is to come" being taken to refer to the Romans who destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple in 70 AD.In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus refers to the "abomination of desolation" and the Gospel of Matthew adds a direct reference to this as being from the Book of Daniel, "Therefore when you see the which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet…".
The general scholarly view is that the author of Daniel is writing a contemporaneous account of the Maccabean Revolt c. 167 BCE and the "cutting off of an anointed one" — refers to the murder of the high priest Onias III; the "abomination that causes desolation" refers to Antiochus IV erecting a statue of Zeus in the Temple, the final straw breaking the uneasy coexistence of the traditionalist Jews and the more Hellenized Jews.
Deuteronomy 18:15
speaks of a prophet who would be raised up from among the Jewish nation:By the time of Jesus, this promise of Moses was understood to refer to a special individual. In John 6:14, after the multiplication of the loaves, people are quoted as saying, "This is truly the Prophet, the one who is to come into the world.” In John 7:40, On the last day of the feast, the great day...Many of the people, therefore, when they heard this saying, said, Of a truth this is the Prophet. In, Peter said that Jesus was the fulfillment of this promise.
Ezekiel 37:24, 25-27
refers a person coming from the House of David as the servant of God, unique Shepherd of Israel, which will rule over the House of Judah and over the Tribe of Joseph so that he will "make them one stick, and they shall be one in mine hand", in a unique nation of Israel.Verses from to 15 to 24 can't be referred to King David, since the united monarchy of Israel was divided in two reigns after the death of his son Solomon, son of David. Furthermore, Ezekiel wrote in the seventh century BCE, four century after this subject of the biblical narration, nevertheless adopting a prophecy that is by its nature usually referred to future happenings. Therefore, as the "stick of Judah" stands for the House of Judah, and the "stick of Joseph" stands for his tribe, the expression "David my servant shall be king over them" may be read as a prophecy about a person of the House of David, which would have ruled over one nation in one land, gathered upon the mountains of Israel on evey side of the earth.
The narration continues as follows:
They will "live" in the land. The "dwelling place" recalls the wilderness tabernacle. The Sanctuary points rather to the Temple, in particular the renewed Temple, which will occupy Ezekiel's attention in the last chapters of 40–48.
Christianity believes that Ezekiel's Temple is more glorious than the Tabernacle of Moses and the Temple of Solomon, pointing forward to several beliefs:
- the glory in which God dwells with man in the Messiah );
- The Messiah's body is the Temple ;
- the messianic community as the Temple ;
- the body of the individual believer ;
- the heavenly Jerusalem
While Christians have cited the following as prophecies referencing the life, status, and legacy of Jesus, Jewish scholars maintain that these passages are not messianic prophecies and are based on mistranslations/misunderstanding of the Hebrew texts.
Hosea 11:1
In its original context, this text from Hosea referred to the deliverance of the people of Israel from bondage in Egypt. The Gospel of Matthew chapter 2 applies it to the return from Egypt of Jesus and his family as a messianic prophecy. "An angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, ‘Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there till I tell you; for Herod is about to search for the child to destroy him.’ And he rose and took the child and his mother by night, and departed to Egypt, and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, ‘Out of Egypt have I called my son’". Conservative scholars argue that this passage fits into the context of Hosea 11.Isaiah
[Isaiah 7:14]
Early Christian tradition interpreted this verse as a reference to the mother of Jesus. The prophet Isaiah, addressing king Ahaz of Judah, promises the king that God will destroy his enemies, and as a sign that his oracle is a true one he predicts that a "young woman" standing nearby will shortly give birth to a child whose name will be Immanuel, "God is with us", and that the threat from the enemy kings will be ended before the child grows up. The almah might be the mother of Hezekiah or a daughter of Isaiah, although there are problems with both candidates - Hezekiah, for example, was apparently born nine years before the prophecy was given, - but the biblical chronology for Hezekiah is confused, and his identity as the prophesied child is strongly suggested by the reference to Immanuel's "land" in 8.8 and 10.The Gospel of Matthew references this verse to support its claim of the supernatural origins of Jesus. In the time of Jesus, however, the Jews of Palestine no longer spoke Hebrew, and Isaiah had to be translated into Greek and Aramaic, the two commonly used languages. In the original Hebrew of Isaiah 7:14 the word almah meant a young woman of childbearing age who had not yet given birth and who might or might not be a virgin, and the Greek translation rendered almah as parthenos, the Greek word for "virgin". Scholars agree that almah has nothing to do with virginity, but many conservative American Christians still judge the acceptability of new bible translations by the way they deal with Isaiah 7:14.
Isaiah 8:14
interprets the stone as Christ, quoting along with and which mention a stone and a cornerstone.Isaiah 8:23-9:1 (9:1-2)
According to both Jewish and Christian interpretation, the prophet Isaiah was commanded to inform the people of Israel in a prophecy that Sennacherib's plunder of the Ten Tribes was at hand, and that Nebuchadnezzar's spoil of Jerusalem, in later years, was coming nearer.During the Syro-Ephraimite War, Isaiah opposed an alliance with Assyria, and counseled Ahaz to rely instead on the assurances of the Davidic covenant. This view was not well-received at court. Assyria absorbed the lands of Zebulon and Naphtali to form the provinces of Galilee, Dor, and Gilead. Judah became a vassal kingdom of the Assyrians.
The reign of Hezekiah saw a notable increase in the power of the Judean state.Hezekiah was successful in his wars against the Philistines, driving them back in a series of victorious battles as far as Gaza. He thus not only retook all the cities that his father had lost, but even conquered others belonging to the Philistines. He also looked to attempting to reincorporate some of the desolate northern territories into the kingdom of Judah and thus restore the boundaries of the country as it was under David. At this time Judah was the strongest nation on the Assyrian-Egyptian frontier. The "messianic oracle" may have coincided with the coronation of Hezekiah and looked toward the deliverance of the Israelites living in the northern provinces.
According to Jewish tradition, the salvation of which he speaks is the miraculous end of Sennacherib's siege of Jerusalem in the days of the Prince of Peace, King Hezekiah, a son of King Ahaz.
Matthew cites the messianic oracle, when Jesus began his ministry in Galilee:
"And leaving Nazareth, He came and dwelt in Capernaum, which is by the sea, in the regions of Zebulun and Naphtali, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying: "The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, By the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles: The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, And upon those who sat in the region and shadow of death Light has dawned.".The interpretation of by the author of the Gospel of Matthew has led Christian authors to hint at its messianic applications.
While the Gospel of Matthew modifies a Greek Septuagint interpretation of scripture, in the Masoretic text it refers to the 'region of the nations'.
Isaiah 9:6,7 Masoretic 9:5,6
In Jewish translations of the Hebrew Bible the verse numbering is different.Newer Jewish versions do not translate the verse as follows:
- Isaiah 9:6 For a child is born unto us, a son hath been given unto us, and the government is placed on his shoulders; and his name is called, Wonderful, counsellor of the mighty God, of the everlasting Father, the prince of peace,
- Isaiah 9:6 For a child is born unto us, a son is given unto us; and the government is upon his shoulder; and his name is called Pele- joez-el-gibbor-Abi-ad-sar-shalom;
This verse is expressly applied to the Messiah in the Targum, i.e. Aramaic commentary on the Hebrew Bible.
Some Christians believe that this verse refers to the birth of Jesus as the Messiah. The verse reads in Christian bible versions:
Isaiah 11:12
Some commentators view this as an unfulfilled prophecy, arguing that the Jewish people have not all been gathered in Israel. Some Christians refer to the foundation of the State of Israel as fulfillment of this prophecy. Others argue that the fulfillment is that Jesus as Messiah brings all nations to himself citing and Paul in when he quotes, emphasizing the inclusion of the gentiles into the people of God.Some Christians also believe that is to be understood in connection with.
Some Christians believe that Jesus the Messiah is the ultimate "house" or dwelling place of God, as is told in and . Through him the messianic community becomes a temple in and . It is through the Messiah's exaltation all nations are drawn to him, as in .
Isaiah 28:16
interprets the stone mentioned as Christ, quoting along with and which mention a stone of stumbling and a cornerstone.Isaiah 53:5
is probably the most famous example claimed by Christians to be a messianic prophecy fulfilled by Jesus. It speaks of one known as the "suffering servant," who suffers because of the sins of others. Jesus is said to fulfill this prophecy through his death on the cross. The verse from Isaiah 53:5 is understood by many Christians to speak of Jesus as the Messiah.Modern Jewish scholars, like Rabbi Tovia Singer as well as Rashi and Origen, view the 'suffering servant' as a reference to the whole Jewish people, regarded as one individual, and more specifically to the Jewish people deported to Babylon. However, in aggadic midrash on the books of Samuel, a compendium of rabbinic folklore, historical anecdotes and moral exhortations, is messianically interpreted.
One of the first claims in the New Testament that Isaiah 53 is a prophecy of Jesus comes from the Book of Acts chapter 8 verses 26-36, which describes a scene in which God commands Philip the Apostle to approach an Ethiopian eunuch who is sitting in a chariot, reading aloud to himself from the Book of Isaiah. The eunuch comments that he does not understand what he is reading and Philip explains to him that the passage refers to Jesus: "And the eunuch answered Philip, and said, I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet this? Of himself, or of some other man? Then Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus."
The Servant, as referring to the Jewish people, suffering from the cruelties of the nations, is a theme in the Servant songs and is mentioned in,,,, and.
Jeremiah 31:15
gives the Massacre of the Innocents by Herod the Great, as the fulfillment of a prophecy spoken of in Jeremiah.The phrase "because her children are no more" is believed to refer to the captivity of Rachel's children in Assyria. The subsequent verses describe their return to Israel.
Micah 5:2 (Micah 5:1 in Hebrew)
This verse near the end of Micah's on the Babylonian captivity has been interpreted by Christian apologists, and by Pharisees mentioned in the Gospel of John, as a prophecy that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem.The verse describes the clan of Bethlehem, who was the son of Caleb's second wife, Ephrathah. Bethlehem Ephrathah is the town and clan from which king David was born, and this passage refers to the future birth of a new Davidic heir.
Although the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of Luke give different accounts of the birth of Jesus, both place the birth in Bethlehem. The Gospel of Matthew describes Herod the Great as asking the chief priests and scribes of Jerusalem where the Messiah was to be born. They respond by quoting Micah, "In Beit-Lechem of Y'hudah," they replied, "because the prophet wrote, 'And you, Beit-Lechem in the land of Y'hudah, are by no means the least among the rulers of Y'hudah; for from you will come a Ruler who will shepherd my people Isra'el.'"
The idea that Bethlehem was to be the birthplace of the Messiah appears in no Jewish source before the 4th century CE. Jewish tradition appears to have emphasised the idea that the birthplace of the Messiah was not known.
Many modern scholars consider the birth stories as inventions by the Gospel writers, created to glorify Jesus and present his birth as the fulfillment of prophecy.
Psalms
Some portions of the Psalms are considered prophetic in Judaism, even though they are listed among the Ketuvim and not the Nevi'im.The words Messiah and Christ mean "anointed one". In ancient times Jewish leaders were anointed with olive oil when they assumed their position. And "Messiah" is used as a name for kings in the Hebrew Bible: in David finds King Saul's killer and asks, "Why were you not afraid to lift your hand to destroy the LORD's anointed?"
In many Psalms, whose authorship are traditionally ascribed to King David, the author writes about his life in third person, referring to himself as "the/God's/your messiah" while clearly discussing his military exploits. Thus it can be argued that many of the portions that are asserted to be prophetic Psalms may not be.
Psalm 2
can be argued to be about David; the authors of Acts and the Epistle to the Hebrews interpreted it as relating to Jesus. Saint Augustine identifies "the nations conspire, and the peoples plot in vain" as the enemies referred to in Psalm 110: "Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool."Verse 7. The LORD is the messiah's father. In Judaism the phrase "Son of God" has very different connotations than in Christianity, not referring to literal descent but to the righteous who have become conscious of God's father of mankind.
Christians cite Herod and Pontius Pilate setting themselves against Jesus as evidence that Psalm 2 refers to him.
interprets Jesus' rising from the dead as confirmation of verse 7.
employs verse 7 in order to argue that Jesus is superior to the angels, i.e., Jesus is superior as a mediator between God and man. "For to what angel did God ever say, Thou art my Son, today I have begotten thee?" However, the phrase "son of God" appears in the Hebrew Bible to describe others than the coming Messiah, including David and Jacob.
Texts vary in the exact wording of the phrase beginning, with "kiss his foot", and "kiss the Son" being most common in various languages for centuries, though not in original Hebrew Manuscripts such as the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Psalm 16
The interpretation of Psalm 16 as a messianic prophecy is common among Christian evangelical hermeneutics.According to the preaching of Peter, this prophecy is about the messiah's triumph over death, i.e., the resurrection of Jesus.
Also of note is what Paul said in the synagogue at Antioch. "And as for the fact that he raised him from the dead, no more to return to corruption, he spoke in this way, ‘I will give you the holy and sure blessings of David.’ Therefore, he also says in another psalm, ‘Thou wilt not let thy Holy One see corruption.’ For David, after he had served the counsel of God in his own generation, fell asleep, and saw corruption; but he whom God raised up saw no corruption".
Psalm 22
Two of the Gospels quote Jesus as speaking these words of Psalm 22 from the cross;The other two canonical Gospels give different accounts of the words of Jesus. quotes while John has Jesus say "It is finished". Some scholars see this as evidence that the words of Jesus were not part of a pre-Gospel Passion narrative, but were added later by the Gospel writers.
In most Hebrew manuscripts, such as the Masoretic, reads כארי ידי ורגלי. Many Modern English translations render this as "they have pierced my hands and my feet", starting with the Coverdale Bible which translated Luther's durchgraben as pearsed, with durchgraben being a variation of the Septuagint's ωρυξαν "dug". This translation is highly controversial. It is asserted in Christian apologetics that the Dead Sea Scrolls lend weight to the translation as "They have pierced my hands and my feet", by lengthening the yud in the Hebrew word כארי into a vav כארו "Kaaru", which is not a word in the Hebrew language but when the aleph is omitted becomes כרו, dig, similar to the Septuagint translation. However, this view is contested considering the Nahal Hever scribe's other numerous misspellings, such as one in the very same sentence, where ידיה is written instead of the correct ידי, making the Hebrew word ידי yadai "hands" into ידיה yadehah, "her hands". Christian apologists argue that this passage refers to Jesus of Nazareth.
Psalm 34
Ray Pritchard has described Psalm 34:20 as a messianic prophecy. In its account of the crucifixion of Jesus, the Gospel of John interprets it as a prophecy and presents some of the details as fulfillment.Psalm 69
Christians believe that this verse refers to Jesus' time on the cross in which he was given a sponge soaked in vinegar to drink, as seen in , , and .Psalm 110
"A royal psalm. It is quite difficult because verse 3 is totally obscure, and the psalm speakers often. In Christian interpretation, it is understood as a reference to Jesus, as a messianic and sometimes eschatological psalm; Radak polemicizes against this view"1. Here God is speaking to the king, called my lord; Perhaps these are the words spoken by a prophet. The king is very proximate to God, in a position of privilege, imagined as being on His right hand in the Divine Council. The second-in-command was seated to the right of the king in the ancient Near East. Such images are rare in psalms, but see. If the king trods on the back of his enemies, they poetically become his "Footstool" 2. In contrast to v.1, God is spoken of in the third person. The Zion tradition and royal tradition are here connected. While v.1-2 express the great power of the king, they also emphasize it comes from God".
Psalm 110 is viewed as messianic in both Jewish and Christian tradition.
Christian authors have interpreted this psalm as a messianic passage in light of several New Testament passages. Pope Benedict XVI noted, "The royal glorification expressed at the beginning of the Psalm was adopted by the New Testament as a messianic prophecy. For this reason the verse is among those most frequently used by New Testament authors, either as an explicit quotation or as an allusion." He further connects this image to the concept of Christ the King
In, Peter refers to the similar glorification of Jesus in the context of the resurrection
Psalm The gospel writers interpret the psalm as a messianic prophecy: "while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question, saying, 'What do you think of the Christ? Whose son is he?' They said to him, 'The son of David.' He said to them, 'How is it then that David in the Spirit calls him Lord, saying, The Lord said to my Lord: Sit at my right hand, till I put thy enemies under thy feet? If David thus calls him Lord, how is he his son?' And no one was able to answer him a word".
According to Augustine of Hippo,: "It was necessary that all this should be prophesied, announced in advance. We needed to be told so that our minds might be prepared. He did not will to come so suddenly that we would shrink from him in fear; rather are we meant to expect him as the one in whom we have believed."
2 Samuel 7:14
quotes this verse as, "I will be his Father, and he will be my Son." In Samuel, the verse continues: "When he does wrong, I will punish him with the rod of men, with floggings inflicted by men." This is, however, not reflected in the comparable section in. The phrase as quoted in Hebrews is generally seen as a reference to the Davidic covenant, whereby God assures the king of his continued mercy to him and his descendants. It is in this context that Charles James Butler sees Psalm 41 as quoted by Jesus in as also messianic.Wisdom 2:12-20
The Wisdom of Solomon is one of the Deuterocanonical books of the Old Testament. The Deuterocanonical books are considered canonical by Catholics, Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox, but are considered non-canonical by Jews and Protestants.Zechariah
Zechariah 9:9
Christian authors have interpreted as a prophecy of an act of messianic self-humiliation. The Gospel of John links this verse to the account of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem:The Synoptic Gospels make clear that Jesus arranged this event, thus consciously fulfilling the prophecy.
The Gospel of Matthew describes Jesus' triumphant entry on Palm Sunday as a fulfillment of this verse in Zechariah. Matthew describes the prophecy in terms of a colt and a separate donkey, whereas the original only mentions the colt; the reference in Zechariah is a Jewish parallelism referring only to a single animal, and the gospels of Mark, Luke, and John state Jesus sent his disciples after only one animal. Several explanations have been suggested, such as that Matthew misread the original, the existence of the foal is implied, or he wanted to create a deliberate echo of a reference in, where there are two asses for David's household to ride on.
In the most ancient Jewish writings Zechariah 9:9 is applied to the Messiah. According to the Talmud, so firm was the belief in the ass on which the Messiah is to ride that "if anyone saw an ass in his dream, he will see salvation". The verse is also Messianically quoted in Sanh. 98 a, in Pirqé de R. Eliez. c. 31, and in several of the Midrashim.
Zechariah 12:10
is another verse commonly cited by Christian authors as a messianic prophecy fulfilled by Jesus.In some of the most ancient Jewish writings, is applied to the Messiah Ben Joseph in the Talmud, and so is verse 12, there being, however, a difference of opinion whether the mourning is caused by the death of the Messiah Ben Joseph, or else on account of the evil concupiscence.
The Gospel of John makes reference to this prophecy when referring to the crucifixion of Jesus, as can be seen in the following account:
Verses read as Davidic line prophecies
Debate about prophecy fulfillment
Among Christian believers, opinion varies as to which Old Testament passages are messianic prophecies and which are not, and whether the prophecies they claim to have been fulfilled are intended to be prophecies. The authors of these Old Testament "prophecies" often appear to be describing events that had already occurred. For example, the New Testament verse states:This is referring to the Old Testament verse. However, that passage reads,
Skeptics say that the Hosea passage clearly is talking about a historical event and therefore the passage clearly is not a prophecy.
According to modern scholarship, the suffering servant described in Isaiah chapter 53 is actually the Jewish people. According to some, the rabbinic response, e.g., Rashi and Maimonides, is that although the suffering servant passage clearly is prophetic and even if Psalm 22 is prophetic, the Messiah has not come yet, therefore, the passages could not possibly be talking about Jesus. As noted above, there is some controversy about the phrase "they have pierced my hands and my feet".
For modern Bible scholars, either the verses make no claim of predicting future events, or the verses make no claim of speaking about the Messiah. The very argument that Jesus is the Messiah because he has fulfilled prophecy is a fallacy, i.e. it is a confession of faith masquerading as objective rational argumentation.