1
Then he said to them, ‘These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you; that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms must be fulfilled.’ Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and he said to them, ‘Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day …’ (Luke 24: 44-46).
So, where do you think Jesus would have turned to in the Old Testament Scriptures; the only Bible Jesus knew; to prove his Messianic credentials? Where did Jesus find himself in those sacred pages?
There were, we now understand, dozens of plainly stated prophecies, e.g., where and when the Messiah would be born, how he would die, where he would be buried, etc. And there were loads of prophetic types all sketching out his mission; like Isaac being offered for sacrifice, the brass serpent held up for public view to save the people from their snake bites, the bread from heaven and the water from the rock, etc.
Yet, despite the overwhelming corroborative evidence, those dejected followers on the road to Emmaus did not recognise Jesus even after his oft-forecast resurrection. After the greatest miracle supplying bone fide messianic credentials, they still needed the expert exposition from the Master Rabbi himself to open their minds to understand the scriptures (v. 45).
Jesus was often staggered at the blindness of Israel. On a previous occasion he had rebuked Israel’s spiritual elite, the Pharisees, and the doctors of the Law (the scribes) for their wilful blindness. He roused on them, ‘You are searching the Scriptures … and it is they that testify of me … If you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words’ (John 5: 39f).
Again, we must ask: Why didn’t these men who had their noses constantly in their Bible see Jesus as their predicted messianic lord? Was Jesus of Nazareth too esoteric for their tradition-bound minds? How did he hide in plain sight? Surely, traditional stereotypes inherited from generations of expert enquiry conspired to distort their expectations?
But let me make this question personal. Disciple of the Lord Jesus, if you were asked, ‘Where is the Messiah in the Old Testament?’ would you be able to consistently point him out? It’s certainly a lot easier this side of the resurrection. Hindsight is always easier.
Is it possible we too may be victims of accrued church myths that warp the very woof from the truth? Have we also inherited generations of church tradition where the Messiah is concerned? None of us works in a vacuum! And to misunderstand Jesus is to take the bite out of the bark of the Bible!
After all, the first 75% of our Bibles; the foundation consists of the Hebrew Bible. And failure to value the only Bible which Jesus and his First Century followers knew, sets us up to miss vital elements of the message of the New Testament to this very day. Let’s delve a little deeper.
So then, where do we find Jesus the Messiah in the Old Testament?
WHERE HE IS NOT
First, a negative. Sometimes seeing what something is not, helps us to see what it is!
In every single passage in the OT where the Son of God is mentioned, he is in the future of God’s prophetic purposes. He is “the Coming one” (Matthew 11:3); definitely not the One who has been! The promise and the person of the Son of God are always (to use a good Aussie expression) down the track in the O.T.
When the great patriarch Abraham was told about the coming one, he contented himself to believe the promises of God about the coming future redeemer. Said Jesus, “Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and saw it, and was glad” (John 8: 57). 1
Contrary to popular notions then, Abraham saw the day, not the Messiah in person before he was born! Messiah predated; and was therefore greater than Abraham, in God’s plans for the future. It is in this sense that Jesus stated, “Before Abraham was, I am he”, that is, the promised Messiah (v. 58). 2
Note: Ephesians 1:3-5: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in union with the Messiah with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world to be holy and without blemish in his presence in love, having decided in advance that we would be adopted through Jesus Messiah for himself, according to the good pleasure of his will... [Jesus was in the mind of God before the foundation of the world. That is how Jesus was before Abraham]
Moses too, predicted that, YEHOVAH your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers, you shall listen to him (Deuteronomy 18: 15). Jesus will be a fully-credentialled Jewish man. This is to say nothing of the oft-repeated assurances that one of David’s future sons (descendants) would be the Messianic Lord (e.g., Psalm 110:1; 2 Samuel 7:12-16; 1 Kings 2:1f; Psalm 132:11-12). In God’s purpose for the ages, the coming Messiah was to be greater than all these prophets, priests, and kings, though one of their countrymen.
THE SON OF GOD HAD A PERSONAL BEGINNING
Finally, after the fulness of time came, God sent forth His Son (and let me give you the literal translation) who came into existence from a woman, who came into existence under the Law (Galatians 4:4). There was a time in history when God’s Son came into existence from a woman. Which is to say, there was a time when the Son of God did not yet exist!
The apostle Paul wrote to Timothy that he must, remember Jesus the Messiah, having been raised from the dead, descendant of David, according to my gospel ... (2 Timothy 2: 8).
Do you understand this vital piece of information? Not only is the physical resurrection of Jesus from the dead an essential component of the Gospel, but also critical to Paul’s Gospel is the confession that Jesus is the physical descendant of David? The resurrection of the human Jesus descended from David is essential Gospel-foundation according to the apostle Paul.
Which is to say, the Bible-Jesus is a genuine human being, descended from the biological chain of his human ancestors. The Gospel of the NT certifies Jesus’ flesh and blood humanity. On the other hand, pre-existence Christology that makes him “the eternal Son” robs Jesus of his finitude so essential to our humanity.
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1. Some of the passages where the Son of God was yet future are 2 Samuel 7: 12f; I Chronicles 17: 11f; Psalm 2; Isaiah 53; Daniel 7.
2. Jesus did not claim to be the Yahweh speaking through the angel of the burning bush who said, I am the existing One. Jesus used the common expression in John 8:58, “I am he (i.e., the one in question, the one Abraham looked forward to).
3. Paul does not employ the usual word for birth as our English translations would have us read. Here the word ‘ginomai’ means “to come into existence”. Paul believed Jesus the Messiah had had a personal beginning; he came into existence; by God’s special creation in the woman Mary; not that he had existed from eternity and suddenly transmuted his mode of residence!
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It is impossible for a human being to exist before their ancestors! There is no such thing as a human being who personally pre-exists their own conception. The Bible knows no such thing as a beginningless beginning for any human being, including Jesus the Messiah!
To repeat: To qualify as the human Messiah, Jesus could not have personally and consciously pre-existed his own birth as “the eternal Son”; an oxymoron found nowhere in the Bible! If Jesus had been alive as “God, the Son”; another expression also found nowhere in the Bible! then he is disqualified from being our Saviour for that would make him non-human!4
The coming deliverer must be bord of a woman (Genesis 3:15). Thus, Messiah must be a direct human descendant of King David as Mary was. Jesus is not a half-bred human being, not 100% man and 100% God, which is a 100% contradiction. The only place you find the offspring of the gods and humans is in pagan mythology!
Jesus was the physical descendant of King David, miraculously generated by the Spirit of God in the womb of his mother Mary, who was a descendant of King David.
NOT AN ANGEL
Yet despite this clear Scriptural information, the idea commonly persists today that Jesus literally and personally pre-existed as an angel before his human beginning. Specifically, as (and I’ll print it as you read it in these popular articles) “THE Angel of the LORD”; bold definite article, and capitalised Angel! One article goes so far as to say that as the Angel of the LORD in the O.T., Jesus is “An Angel You Ought To Know”!
The popular reasoning runs like this (see if you can spot the copious speculative reasoning!):
The name of the Lord may refer to the whole Godhead collectively or to the Persons individually [so] one Person may have one form of special responsibility and another Person another. Thus, the Messenger or Angel of the Godhead is given the title “The Angel of the Lord,” and throughout Scripture it will be found quite consistently that this title is reserved for Jesus???
When Jacob wrestled with the Angel of Yehovah, he was well aware of His true identity. This person appeared to Jacob as a man (Genesis 32:24) and wrestled with him. Subsequently this person identified himself as God (verse 28), and consequently Jacob named that place Peniel, a Hebrew compound form which means “the face of God,” for he said, “I have seen God face to face” (verse 30).
Since no man has seen God the Father, this was God the Son. Hosea 12:4-5, tell us that this Person was “the Angel … even the Lord God of Hosts,” … Jacob himself subsequently refers back to this incident in his life when blessing Joseph (Genesis 48:15-16) and calls this Angel his Redeemer.
Putting all these passages together, we have Jesus identified as the Angel of the Lord - Yehovah, the Lord God – Yehovah Elohim of Hosts, and as Yehovah.
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Note: Romans 5:12f is clear that it was by one man that sin invaded our planet, and it is by one man that salvation comes.
Note: http://ldolphin.org/angelL.html This of course, is exactly what the apostle Paul warns against in his letter to the Colossians … we don’t need angelic mediation because Jesus the Messiah has been exalted as the first immortalised and glorified man, far above all angelic power and authority, meaning that in him all the fulness of the nature of God dwells substantially, in reality (definitely not as your English translations want you to believe “in bodily form” … an expression not found in the Greek text!). The Greek word for “body” translated in Colossians 2:9 is the same word soma translated substance a few verses further down in v. 17 where the contrast is between mere shadow and substance as found in the Messiah. So, why not consistently translate that idea as the context demands back in v. 9???
Note: http://custance.org/old/incarnation/5ch6.html is titled the “Angel of the Lord” and “The Voice of the Lord”.
So, in Ugaritic literature, when Baal sends messengers to Mot, the messengers use first person forms of speech. E.T. Mullen concludes that such usage ‘signifies that the messengers to Mot use first person forms of speech … and that such usages ‘signify that the messengers not only are envoys of the god, but actually embody the power of their sender.’ 3
All who think ‘the Angel of Yehovah’ was Jesus in a pre-incarnate existence would do well to read their Bibles through these Hebrew eyes! The dictum, “the agent (the one sent or commissioned) is as the principal himself” is critical to understanding who Jesus is.
One obvious example where Jesus saw himself prefigured in type was the bronze serpent on the pole hung up to save the Israelites from their snake bites (John 3: 14).
Another well-known example is found in I Corinthians 10. Referring to the wilderness journey of Israel under Moses, the apostle Paul indicates that the miraculous provision of drinking water from the rock was a “type” of disciples of the Lord Jesus drinking from the living Messiah now (1 Corinthians 10:4; John 4:10). 4
Note: http://custance.org/old/incarnation/5ch6.html is titled the “Angel of the Lord” and “The Voice of the Lord”.
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Oh, really? Not only does “the Name of the Lord [Yehovah]” NEVER refer to the nature of Yehovah Elohim - God collectively! Can anybody please find a single verse where Jesus is the Angel of the Lord - Yehovah, the Lord God [Yehovah Elohim] of Hosts, and Yehovah? There simply is not a single explicit statement anywhere in the Old or New Testaments where “the angel of the LORD - YEHOVAH” is equated with the Son of God.
Did not Jesus make it absolutely clear that his coming was uniquely special precisely because he had never been personally seen or heard in any previous generation? He said:
Blessed are your eyes, because they see; and your ears, because they hear. For truly I say to you, that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see and did not see it; and to hear what you hear and did not hear it (Matthew 13: 16-17).
Contrary to all subsequent speculation, Jesus made it abundantly clear that he had not been seen or heard by preceding generations in any guise! That generation was the first and exclusive generation granted the privilege of seeing and hearing the Son of God in person.
It is therefore certain that, Jesus did not see himself as “The Angel of Yehovah” in the O.T. Which means Jesus never claimed to be the one who wrestled with Jacob as the god-angel-man. Surely it is pure speculation to think Jesus saw himself as the super angel of the god-angel-man variety. Where did he himself ever make such a claim? Where in the pages of the N.T., can we find such a claim?
Anyone reading the NT knows that Jesus was never, and is not now, and will never ever be, an angel. 7 So why is it that, when I Googled “The Angel of the Lord” all the sites I searched promote the idea that Jesus is the Angel of the Lord, the second Person of the Trinity, before his ‘incarnation’?
This is in spite of the fact that, none of the six Apostolic Fathers --- Clement of Rome 30-100 A.D., Barnabas, Polycarp 65-155 A.D., Ignatius 30-107 A.D., Papias of Heiropolis and Hermes - taught that Jesus is the Angel of the Lord. Indeed, only Hermas mentioned ‘the angel of the Lord’, but he did not apply it to Jesus the Messiah, but to that great and glorious angel, Michael [Hermas, Sim 8.2.3]. 8
Of course, it goes without saying, that Jewish commentary never considered “the angel of Yehovah” to be other than a created angel who was sent as an agent/messenger for manifesting the Almighty to Israel.
So, how has the modern “orthodox” belief that, The Angel of Yehovah was the pre-incarnate Jesus? For the answer we turn to the 2nd, 3rd & 4th Century Church Fathers (so-called even though they are very much post-apostolic voices). History tells us that these apologists scrambled for all available means to defend Christ’s authority and status before both Jews and Gentile pagans.
It was Justin Martyr writing in the middle of the 2nd Century who pioneered the way for succeeding apologists to find a “second God” in the OT under the title of “an angel” - he appealed to other names such as ‘the glory of the Lord’, firstborn, logos, son, etc. Justin Martyr elaborated four (4) instances to demonstrate how the pre-incarnate Messiah appeared as an angel (Abraham in Genesis 18; Jacob in Genesis 28; Moses in Exodus 3; and Joshua in Joshua 5).
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Note: How much clearer could this be stated than, for instance, in Hebrews chapters 1 & 2? In contrast to the diverse portions when God spoke through prophets and visions and angels to Israel, He has now spoken to us in these last days through His Son. God has rewarded Jesus’ faithfulness by granting him to become much superior to angels. Bluntly put: Jesus did not say a word in the OT dispensation! Furthermore, Hebrews 2: 5-17 states, God has not put the Coming Messianic Age under the authority of His angels, but rather to the exalted Son of man!
Note: The Apostolic Fathers were those who were contemporary with the apostles and the First Century generation of Christians. Naturally, they pre-date the later so-called Church Fathers from the Second Century onwards. A misnomer if ever there was one!
Subsequent apologists took these four instances as standard proof texts. Clement of Alexandria influenced the north African school with his assertion that “the angel of the Lord” who wrestled with Jacob was, “God, the Word, the Instructor”.
And Tertullian (also of north Africa) strongly contended for the true and solid substance of the “unborn” flesh in the Messiah’s supposed visits to the Jewish patriarchs. Another, Novatian the noted Roman presbyter agreed that “the son” was accustomed to descend and be seen as an angel prior to his incarnation.
And so, a new tradition of interpretation was forged! For the greater number of these so-called Church Fathers - Irenaeus, Cyprian, Chrysostorn, Eusebius, Hilary, and Theodoret et al proposed that, the Angel of the Lord in the O.T., was the Messiah Jesus himself manifested as the second Person of the Trinity before his incarnation.
The snowball was now rolling and gathering momentum. By the mid 4th Century, The Formula of Sirmium included two anathemas (15,16) against anyone who denied that it was “the Son” who appeared to Abraham and Jacob respectively! The snowball has developed big bad teeth!
Once this poison flowed into the stream of “orthodoxy” it was picked up by formidable Reformation theologians such as those in the Lutheran tradition, where to the point that denying this was to invite official sanction and even persecution. The anathema pronounced in The Formula of Sirmium was later appealed to by Luther’s followers. In one of their books, Consensus Repititus Fidei Vere Lutheranae by A. Calovius (1664) it was deemed heresy to deny that, the angel of the Lord was the Messiah.
And in his Institues, Bk.1,13.10, John Calvin committed himself to an assumed descent of the not-yet incarnate Messiah, in a mediatorial capacity, that he might approach the faithful with greater familiarity. In his list against Michael Servetus, John Calvin indicted that martyr for heresy because he did not hold that the angel was the Messiah!
Still, it might be said, on the surface there appear to be strong reasons adduced for the belief that Jesus was the Angel of the LORD - YEHOVAH in the O.T. It is claimed that this particular angel was worshipped, that he made promises that only God could make, and that he spoke as God in the first person.
I have addressed these various appeals before, so for the sake of brevity will let the reader follow those specific expositions in those other places. But I will here address one other aspect needing further explanation.
One of the common arguments employed in favour of the angel of the Lord being the pre-existent Son of God is that this super-angel is denominated with the definite article. He is not just any angel, but the Angel of the Lord. Representative of this view is at: www.GotQuestions.org Under the question, “Who is the angel of the Lord?” they answer:
The precise identity of the “angel of the Lord - Yehovah” is not specifically given in the Bible. However (they are now going to go on and specify anyway!?) there are many important “clues” to his identity. There are Old and New Testament references to “angels of the Lord,” ”an angel of the Lord,” and “The angel of the Lord.” It seems when the definite article “the” is used, it is specifying a unique being, separate from the other angels. (My underlining.)
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See my book They Never Told Me This in Church! in the chapter Another God under the sub-heading The Principle of Agency.
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The angel of Yehovah speaks as God, identifies Himself with God, and exercises the responsibilities of God (Genesis 16:7-12; 21: 17-18; 22: 11-18; Exodus 3:2; Judges 2: 1-4; 5: 23; 6:11-24; 13: 3-22; 2 Samuel 24: 16; Zechariah 1:12; 3: 1; 12:8). In several of these appearances, those who saw the angel of Yehovah feared for their lives because they had “seen Yehovah.” Therefore, it is clear that in at least some instances, the angel of Yehovah is a theophany, an appearance of God in physical form.
Not so fast! Is it true to say that the definite article (“the”) is specifying a unique being, separate from the other angels? Our author is not alone by any stretch, for this is a common assertion. But, and it’s a big “but”, does it not occur to these sincere authorities that the Hebrew has no definite article?
Without getting too technical, this simply means that whenever angels are introduced in any OT passage, they are introduced without the definite article (anarthrously for you technically minded folk! And for the super technically minded, it’s called the construct state.)
Take the first time “the angel of Yehovah” appears in the O.T.: Genesis 16: 7 in our English Bibles reads, Now the angel of Yehovah found her (Hagar) by a spring of water in the wilderness… Given that Hebrew has no definite article, it is perfectly legitimate to translate it as “an angel of Yehovah”. We must therefore understand that to write, the angel of Yehovah found her, is the translator’s insertion.
However, once introduced to the reader, this anarthrous angel may legitimately be described as “the angel of Yehovah” because the reader has just met this particular angel at this moment in time. So, in a nutshell, that’s how an angel becomes the angel of Yehovah in every single O.T., passage when an angel of God appears! Having appeared, and once introduced, the reader knows which angel is speaking and acting. He is now “the angel of Yehovah”!
But don’t take my word for it:
The English article that begins the traditional translation, “the angel of the Lord” is an inferior theological pillar that collapses when made to bear the weight of personal specificity. The article is placed there in any English translation according to an editor’s taste and not of necessity.
Oh, really? Not only does “the Name of the Lord [Yehovah]” NEVER refer to the nature of Yehovah Elohim - God collectively! Can anybody please find a single verse where Jesus is the Angel of the Lord - Yehovah, the Lord God [Yehovah Elohim] of Hosts, and Yehovah? There simply is not a single explicit statement anywhere in the Old or New Testaments where “the angel of the LORD - YEHOVAH” is equated with the Son of God.
Did not Jesus make it absolutely clear that his coming was uniquely special precisely because he had never been personally seen or heard in any previous generation? He said:
Blessed are your eyes, because they see; and your ears, because they hear. For truly I say to you, that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see and did not see it; and to hear what you hear and did not hear it (Matthew 13: 16-17).
Contrary to all subsequent speculation, Jesus made it abundantly clear that he had not been seen or heard by preceding generations in any guise! That generation was the first and exclusive generation granted the privilege of seeing and hearing the Son of God in person.
It is therefore certain that, Jesus did not see himself as “The Angel of Yehovah” in the O.T. Which means Jesus never claimed to be the one who wrestled with Jacob as the god-angel-man. Surely it is pure speculation to think Jesus saw himself as the super angel of the god-angel-man variety. Where did he himself ever make such a claim? Where in the pages of the N.T., can we find such a claim?
A LITTLE HISTORY LESSON
Anyone reading the NT knows that Jesus was never, and is not now, and will never ever be, an angel. 7 So why is it that, when I Googled “The Angel of the Lord” all the sites I searched promote the idea that Jesus is the Angel of the Lord, the second Person of the Trinity, before his ‘incarnation’?
This is in spite of the fact that, none of the six Apostolic Fathers --- Clement of Rome 30-100 A.D., Barnabas, Polycarp 65-155 A.D., Ignatius 30-107 A.D., Papias of Heiropolis and Hermes - taught that Jesus is the Angel of the Lord. Indeed, only Hermas mentioned ‘the angel of the Lord’, but he did not apply it to Jesus the Messiah, but to that great and glorious angel, Michael [Hermas, Sim 8.2.3]. 8
Of course, it goes without saying, that Jewish commentary never considered “the angel of Yehovah” to be other than a created angel who was sent as an agent/messenger for manifesting the Almighty to Israel.
So, how has the modern “orthodox” belief that, The Angel of Yehovah was the pre-incarnate Jesus? For the answer we turn to the 2nd, 3rd & 4th Century Church Fathers (so-called even though they are very much post-apostolic voices). History tells us that these apologists scrambled for all available means to defend Christ’s authority and status before both Jews and Gentile pagans.
It was Justin Martyr writing in the middle of the 2nd Century who pioneered the way for succeeding apologists to find a “second God” in the OT under the title of “an angel” - he appealed to other names such as ‘the glory of the Lord’, firstborn, logos, son, etc. Justin Martyr elaborated four (4) instances to demonstrate how the pre-incarnate Messiah appeared as an angel (Abraham in Genesis 18; Jacob in Genesis 28; Moses in Exodus 3; and Joshua in Joshua 5).
__________________________________________________________
Note: How much clearer could this be stated than, for instance, in Hebrews chapters 1 & 2? In contrast to the diverse portions when God spoke through prophets and visions and angels to Israel, He has now spoken to us in these last days through His Son. God has rewarded Jesus’ faithfulness by granting him to become much superior to angels. Bluntly put: Jesus did not say a word in the OT dispensation! Furthermore, Hebrews 2: 5-17 states, God has not put the Coming Messianic Age under the authority of His angels, but rather to the exalted Son of man!
Note: The Apostolic Fathers were those who were contemporary with the apostles and the First Century generation of Christians. Naturally, they pre-date the later so-called Church Fathers from the Second Century onwards. A misnomer if ever there was one!
Subsequent apologists took these four instances as standard proof texts. Clement of Alexandria influenced the north African school with his assertion that “the angel of the Lord” who wrestled with Jacob was, “God, the Word, the Instructor”.
And Tertullian (also of north Africa) strongly contended for the true and solid substance of the “unborn” flesh in the Messiah’s supposed visits to the Jewish patriarchs. Another, Novatian the noted Roman presbyter agreed that “the son” was accustomed to descend and be seen as an angel prior to his incarnation.
And so, a new tradition of interpretation was forged! For the greater number of these so-called Church Fathers - Irenaeus, Cyprian, Chrysostorn, Eusebius, Hilary, and Theodoret et al proposed that, the Angel of the Lord in the O.T., was the Messiah Jesus himself manifested as the second Person of the Trinity before his incarnation.
The snowball was now rolling and gathering momentum. By the mid 4th Century, The Formula of Sirmium included two anathemas (15,16) against anyone who denied that it was “the Son” who appeared to Abraham and Jacob respectively! The snowball has developed big bad teeth!
Once this poison flowed into the stream of “orthodoxy” it was picked up by formidable Reformation theologians such as those in the Lutheran tradition, where to the point that denying this was to invite official sanction and even persecution. The anathema pronounced in The Formula of Sirmium was later appealed to by Luther’s followers. In one of their books, Consensus Repititus Fidei Vere Lutheranae by A. Calovius (1664) it was deemed heresy to deny that, the angel of the Lord was the Messiah.
And in his Institues, Bk.1,13.10, John Calvin committed himself to an assumed descent of the not-yet incarnate Messiah, in a mediatorial capacity, that he might approach the faithful with greater familiarity. In his list against Michael Servetus, John Calvin indicted that martyr for heresy because he did not hold that the angel was the Messiah!
Still, it might be said, on the surface there appear to be strong reasons adduced for the belief that Jesus was the Angel of the LORD - YEHOVAH in the O.T. It is claimed that this particular angel was worshipped, that he made promises that only God could make, and that he spoke as God in the first person.
I have addressed these various appeals before, so for the sake of brevity will let the reader follow those specific expositions in those other places. But I will here address one other aspect needing further explanation.
THE DEFINITE ARTICLE
One of the common arguments employed in favour of the angel of the Lord being the pre-existent Son of God is that this super-angel is denominated with the definite article. He is not just any angel, but the Angel of the Lord. Representative of this view is at: www.GotQuestions.org Under the question, “Who is the angel of the Lord?” they answer:
The precise identity of the “angel of the Lord - Yehovah” is not specifically given in the Bible. However (they are now going to go on and specify anyway!?) there are many important “clues” to his identity. There are Old and New Testament references to “angels of the Lord,” ”an angel of the Lord,” and “The angel of the Lord.” It seems when the definite article “the” is used, it is specifying a unique being, separate from the other angels. (My underlining.)
__________________________________________________________
See my book They Never Told Me This in Church! in the chapter Another God under the sub-heading The Principle of Agency.
__________________________________________________________
The angel of Yehovah speaks as God, identifies Himself with God, and exercises the responsibilities of God (Genesis 16:7-12; 21: 17-18; 22: 11-18; Exodus 3:2; Judges 2: 1-4; 5: 23; 6:11-24; 13: 3-22; 2 Samuel 24: 16; Zechariah 1:12; 3: 1; 12:8). In several of these appearances, those who saw the angel of Yehovah feared for their lives because they had “seen Yehovah.” Therefore, it is clear that in at least some instances, the angel of Yehovah is a theophany, an appearance of God in physical form.
Not so fast! Is it true to say that the definite article (“the”) is specifying a unique being, separate from the other angels? Our author is not alone by any stretch, for this is a common assertion. But, and it’s a big “but”, does it not occur to these sincere authorities that the Hebrew has no definite article?
Without getting too technical, this simply means that whenever angels are introduced in any OT passage, they are introduced without the definite article (anarthrously for you technically minded folk! And for the super technically minded, it’s called the construct state.)
Take the first time “the angel of Yehovah” appears in the O.T.: Genesis 16: 7 in our English Bibles reads, Now the angel of Yehovah found her (Hagar) by a spring of water in the wilderness… Given that Hebrew has no definite article, it is perfectly legitimate to translate it as “an angel of Yehovah”. We must therefore understand that to write, the angel of Yehovah found her, is the translator’s insertion.
However, once introduced to the reader, this anarthrous angel may legitimately be described as “the angel of Yehovah” because the reader has just met this particular angel at this moment in time. So, in a nutshell, that’s how an angel becomes the angel of Yehovah in every single O.T., passage when an angel of God appears! Having appeared, and once introduced, the reader knows which angel is speaking and acting. He is now “the angel of Yehovah”!
But don’t take my word for it:
The English article that begins the traditional translation, “the angel of the Lord” is an inferior theological pillar that collapses when made to bear the weight of personal specificity. The article is placed there in any English translation according to an editor’s taste and not of necessity.
Now, to compound their false trail the www.GotQuestions.org Article continues:
The appearances of the angel of the Lord cease after the incarnation of Christ. Angels are mentioned numerous times in the New Testament, but “THE angel of the Lord” is never mentioned in the New Testament.
Are they serious? “THE angel of the Lord” is never mentioned in the New Testament?!?
For the record, the N.T., follows the same O.T., pattern of introducing its angels. Just to make sure you have your thinking cap on, the Greek has no indefinite article. So whenever an angel of the Lord appears, he is introduced anarthrously; without the definite article. But then, just as per the O.T., pattern, whenever that angel continues to speak or to act, he is subsequently described with the definite article, which the Greek language definitely does have! because the reader already recognizes this one who is appearing as “the angel of the Lord” in that scene.
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Note: For example, in Luke 1:11 we read, and an angel of the Lord appeared to Zacharias. Whenever that angel speaks subsequently to Zacharias, he is called the angel of the Lord. Indeed, he calls himself by name, and it’s not Jesus! Same holds for instance, in Acts 12: 7 when an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared to Peter in jail. Thereafter, that angel is called the angel of the Lord.
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Ah, what a castle of hot air is constructed on no linguistic foundation at all when it is alleged that, The appearances of the angel of the Lord cease after the incarnation of the Messiah. Angels are mentioned numerous times in the New Testament, but “The angel of the Lord” is never mentioned in the New Testament!
“The angel of the Lord” appears before Jesus’ conception, during Jesus’ gestation in the womb, and subsequent to his birth! This continuity of terms between Old and New Testaments ought to once and for all time settle the issue.
No one would seriously suggest that “the angel of the Lord” who speaks to Mary about her impending pregnancy is really the pre-incarnate Jesus (unless it be that Gabriel is the pre-incarnate Jesus??). Nor would they say that “the angel of the Lord” who appeared to Peter in jail was really the now resurrected and glorified Jesus! A little common sense and a lot of consistency is helpful.
Given that the Messiah is not “the Angel of YEHOVAH”, we ask again where Jesus would have seen himself in the OT Scriptures?
So yes, Jesus saw himself portrayed in the Old Testament Scriptures, but he did not see himself as having been “the Angel of the LORD - YEHOVAH” prior to his coming to earth in the flesh as is a popular notion nowadays. Nor did the New Testament writers even hint at that possibility. In fact, they expressly say the exact opposite: Jesus was not, is not an angel for…
To which of the angels did He ever say, “You are My Son, Today I have begotten you” (Hebrews 1:5)?
Nevertheless, popular belief insists that just because an angel of the Lord - Yehovah seems to be worshipped on occasion, just because an angel speaks in the first person as though he were God Himself, or just because an angel seems to make promises which are only the prerogative of the Almighty to make, that we may reasonably deduce Jesus existed in a pre-incarnate state as the god-angel-man super angel.
In the last article I mentioned that I have dealt with these apparently reasonable deductions in previous writings. But for those of you who don’t have access to my book "They Never Told Me This in Church!" I will simply mention that the answer is found in the Biblical concept called “agency”. In Semitic and Biblical thought, when a representative was deputised to transact business on behalf of the sender, that messenger-angel “was conceived of as being personally; and in his very words; the presence of the sender”.
The dictum “the agent is as the principal himself” concisely expresses this interpretive key so essential to understanding much of the Biblical way of thinking about agency. Did not our Lord himself teach this principle of agency when he cried out, “He who believes in me does not believe in me, but in Him Who sent me. And he who beholds me beholds the One Who sent me” (John 12: 44-45)?
Which is to say, when we see Jesus who has been “sent” (or sealed as per John 6:27) by his Father, we see God the Principal. When we hear Jesus who has been commissioned by his Father, we see God. For the agent is as the principal himself.
If you don’t like calling Jesus an agent/messenger of the one true God Yehovah who sent him, then just stick with the Biblical description of Jesus being the mediator between God and men (e.g., 1 Timothy 2:5)! Same difference.
One of today’s acknowledged authorities on Ancient Near East (ANE) studies explains this law of agency very well.
In the ancient world direct communication between important parties was a rarity. Diplomatic and political exchange usually required the use of an intermediary, a function that our ambassadors exercise today ...
The messenger who served as the intermediary was a fully vested representative of the party he represented. He spoke for that party and with the authority of that party. He was accorded the same treatment as that party would enjoy were he there in person. While this was standard protocol, there was no confusion about the person’s identity.
_________________________________________________________
Note: The word for ‘angel’ in the Hebrew is malak and in the Greek is aggelos and both simply mean “messenger”, or one who is sent. It refers to either a human representative of the one who sends him, or may of course, refer to a heavenly visitor!
The appearances of the angel of the Lord cease after the incarnation of Christ. Angels are mentioned numerous times in the New Testament, but “THE angel of the Lord” is never mentioned in the New Testament.
Are they serious? “THE angel of the Lord” is never mentioned in the New Testament?!?
For the record, the N.T., follows the same O.T., pattern of introducing its angels. Just to make sure you have your thinking cap on, the Greek has no indefinite article. So whenever an angel of the Lord appears, he is introduced anarthrously; without the definite article. But then, just as per the O.T., pattern, whenever that angel continues to speak or to act, he is subsequently described with the definite article, which the Greek language definitely does have! because the reader already recognizes this one who is appearing as “the angel of the Lord” in that scene.
__________________________________________________________
Note: For example, in Luke 1:11 we read, and an angel of the Lord appeared to Zacharias. Whenever that angel speaks subsequently to Zacharias, he is called the angel of the Lord. Indeed, he calls himself by name, and it’s not Jesus! Same holds for instance, in Acts 12: 7 when an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared to Peter in jail. Thereafter, that angel is called the angel of the Lord.
__________________________________________________________
Ah, what a castle of hot air is constructed on no linguistic foundation at all when it is alleged that, The appearances of the angel of the Lord cease after the incarnation of the Messiah. Angels are mentioned numerous times in the New Testament, but “The angel of the Lord” is never mentioned in the New Testament!
“The angel of the Lord” appears before Jesus’ conception, during Jesus’ gestation in the womb, and subsequent to his birth! This continuity of terms between Old and New Testaments ought to once and for all time settle the issue.
No one would seriously suggest that “the angel of the Lord” who speaks to Mary about her impending pregnancy is really the pre-incarnate Jesus (unless it be that Gabriel is the pre-incarnate Jesus??). Nor would they say that “the angel of the Lord” who appeared to Peter in jail was really the now resurrected and glorified Jesus! A little common sense and a lot of consistency is helpful.
CONCLUSION
Given that the Messiah is not “the Angel of YEHOVAH”, we ask again where Jesus would have seen himself in the OT Scriptures?
2
So yes, Jesus saw himself portrayed in the Old Testament Scriptures, but he did not see himself as having been “the Angel of the LORD - YEHOVAH” prior to his coming to earth in the flesh as is a popular notion nowadays. Nor did the New Testament writers even hint at that possibility. In fact, they expressly say the exact opposite: Jesus was not, is not an angel for…
To which of the angels did He ever say, “You are My Son, Today I have begotten you” (Hebrews 1:5)?
Nevertheless, popular belief insists that just because an angel of the Lord - Yehovah seems to be worshipped on occasion, just because an angel speaks in the first person as though he were God Himself, or just because an angel seems to make promises which are only the prerogative of the Almighty to make, that we may reasonably deduce Jesus existed in a pre-incarnate state as the god-angel-man super angel.
THE PRINCIPLE OF JEWISH AGENCY
In the last article I mentioned that I have dealt with these apparently reasonable deductions in previous writings. But for those of you who don’t have access to my book "They Never Told Me This in Church!" I will simply mention that the answer is found in the Biblical concept called “agency”. In Semitic and Biblical thought, when a representative was deputised to transact business on behalf of the sender, that messenger-angel “was conceived of as being personally; and in his very words; the presence of the sender”.
The dictum “the agent is as the principal himself” concisely expresses this interpretive key so essential to understanding much of the Biblical way of thinking about agency. Did not our Lord himself teach this principle of agency when he cried out, “He who believes in me does not believe in me, but in Him Who sent me. And he who beholds me beholds the One Who sent me” (John 12: 44-45)?
Which is to say, when we see Jesus who has been “sent” (or sealed as per John 6:27) by his Father, we see God the Principal. When we hear Jesus who has been commissioned by his Father, we see God. For the agent is as the principal himself.
If you don’t like calling Jesus an agent/messenger of the one true God Yehovah who sent him, then just stick with the Biblical description of Jesus being the mediator between God and men (e.g., 1 Timothy 2:5)! Same difference.
One of today’s acknowledged authorities on Ancient Near East (ANE) studies explains this law of agency very well.
In the ancient world direct communication between important parties was a rarity. Diplomatic and political exchange usually required the use of an intermediary, a function that our ambassadors exercise today ...
The messenger who served as the intermediary was a fully vested representative of the party he represented. He spoke for that party and with the authority of that party. He was accorded the same treatment as that party would enjoy were he there in person. While this was standard protocol, there was no confusion about the person’s identity.
_________________________________________________________
Note: The word for ‘angel’ in the Hebrew is malak and in the Greek is aggelos and both simply mean “messenger”, or one who is sent. It refers to either a human representative of the one who sends him, or may of course, refer to a heavenly visitor!
__________________________________________________________
This explains how the angel in this chapter (Genesis 16) can comfortably use the first person to convey what God will do (Genesis 16:11). When official words are spoken by the representative, everyone understands that he is not speaking for himself, but is merely conveying the words, opinions, policies, and decisions of his liege - lord.
This explains how the angel in this chapter (Genesis 16) can comfortably use the first person to convey what God will do (Genesis 16:11). When official words are spoken by the representative, everyone understands that he is not speaking for himself, but is merely conveying the words, opinions, policies, and decisions of his liege - lord.
So, in Ugaritic literature, when Baal sends messengers to Mot, the messengers use first person forms of speech. E.T. Mullen concludes that such usage ‘signifies that the messengers to Mot use first person forms of speech … and that such usages ‘signify that the messengers not only are envoys of the god, but actually embody the power of their sender.’ 3
All who think ‘the Angel of Yehovah’ was Jesus in a pre-incarnate existence would do well to read their Bibles through these Hebrew eyes! The dictum, “the agent (the one sent or commissioned) is as the principal himself” is critical to understanding who Jesus is.
Jesus is always the one whom the Father has sent and sealed (e.g., John 5:19-27; 6:27, etc.).
This principle perfectly explains how an angel may speak as God, be acknowledged as God, make promises as God himself, without being God Himself!
Yes, angels are identified fully with God, the One Whose affairs they conduct. But they are never identical to God, never! In the Bible God is the Creator of the angels:
He makes His angels winds, and His ministers a flame of fire (Psalm 104:4; Hebrews 1:7).
In the Bible, God may go or come, but He never sends Himself! Indeed, God cannot commission Himself! God cannot seal Himself! Sending, sealing, commissioning, authorising, imply subordination.
By definition Yahweh God is the Almighty! But His angels, His agents, His messengers, stand in His place as though they are God Himself when they speak and act for Him! An angel of the Lord functions as though he is God Himself!
So, if we don’t find a personally pre-existing “eternal Son of God” in the guise of “the Angel of Yehovah” in the O.T., exactly where is the Messiah to be found?
Leaving aside for the moment the explicit pronouncements in the O.T., concerning the coming Messiah, we find the Messiah implicitly foreshadowed. We know that, with the benefit of hindsight after the resurrection, the N.T., writers found Jesus prefigured in many prophetic sketches. They variously describe these “portraits” as types, examples, shadows, allegories, and figures (I Corinthians 10:6; Colossians 2:16-17; Galatians 4:24; Hebrews 8:5; 9:9, etc.).
This principle perfectly explains how an angel may speak as God, be acknowledged as God, make promises as God himself, without being God Himself!
Yes, angels are identified fully with God, the One Whose affairs they conduct. But they are never identical to God, never! In the Bible God is the Creator of the angels:
He makes His angels winds, and His ministers a flame of fire (Psalm 104:4; Hebrews 1:7).
In the Bible, God may go or come, but He never sends Himself! Indeed, God cannot commission Himself! God cannot seal Himself! Sending, sealing, commissioning, authorising, imply subordination.
By definition Yahweh God is the Almighty! But His angels, His agents, His messengers, stand in His place as though they are God Himself when they speak and act for Him! An angel of the Lord functions as though he is God Himself!
THE MESSIAH IS IN THE FORESHADOWS
So, if we don’t find a personally pre-existing “eternal Son of God” in the guise of “the Angel of Yehovah” in the O.T., exactly where is the Messiah to be found?
Leaving aside for the moment the explicit pronouncements in the O.T., concerning the coming Messiah, we find the Messiah implicitly foreshadowed. We know that, with the benefit of hindsight after the resurrection, the N.T., writers found Jesus prefigured in many prophetic sketches. They variously describe these “portraits” as types, examples, shadows, allegories, and figures (I Corinthians 10:6; Colossians 2:16-17; Galatians 4:24; Hebrews 8:5; 9:9, etc.).
One obvious example where Jesus saw himself prefigured in type was the bronze serpent on the pole hung up to save the Israelites from their snake bites (John 3: 14).
Another well-known example is found in I Corinthians 10. Referring to the wilderness journey of Israel under Moses, the apostle Paul indicates that the miraculous provision of drinking water from the rock was a “type” of disciples of the Lord Jesus drinking from the living Messiah now (1 Corinthians 10:4; John 4:10). 4
Likewise, the manna from heaven is also said to be their spiritual food (1 Corinthians 10:3) which portrayed how the disciples of Jesus would be fed by the Messiah himself in beautiful spiritual union with their Lord.
Again, every commentator knows that Abraham’s offering up of his son Isaac is a beautiful depiction of Messiah’s sin-offering sacrifice at Calvary. Here’s how:
YEHOVAH instructed Moses to offer the ‘Tamid’ or daily burnt offering. You find this in Exodus 29:38-43. Every single day, two unblemished one year old lambs were to be offered up on the altar, which was erected in front of the Holy of Holies. One lamb was offered in the morning and one at twilight (literally, between the two evenings) (Exodus 29:38-39).
There were two other components to the sacrifice. As well as the lamb offered at the third hour (9 a.m.) and at the ninth hour (3 p.m.) there was bread which was anointed with oil, and wine offered as a libation with the whole being an offering by fire to YEHOVAH” (Exodus 29:40-41).
Now here’s the thing. When the Temple was built, every morning one of the Levitical priests was selected to carry a beam of wood up the stairs to the massive bronze altar and to light the fire. The steps were 12 feet high, and the altar was 20 feet across!
Every devout Jew understood this was a portrayal and a remembrance of Isaac carrying the wood up for his own sacrifice! The imagery was rich and pregnant with meaning, for Jesus carried his own beam ‘straros’ to Calvary.
In the court outside where this priestly work was performed, the people would gather to do two things. First, they would recite their monotheistic creed, the Shema; Hear O Israel, YEHOVAH is our God, YEHOVAH is one. And you shall love the LORD your God … (Deuteronomy 6:4).
Then they would recite 18 Benedictions, or blessings. This daily Tamid went on for generations, right up, of course, to the days when Jesus walked in the Temple precincts.
On the Day of Pentecost, it seems Peter preached his famous sermon to the very crowd that had gathered outside the Temple for the morning burnt sacrifice for, we are told, it was the third hour, or 9 a.m.! And in the very next chapter, Peter and John were going up to the temple at the ninth hour, the hour of prayer (Acts 3: 1)!
After their miracle of the healing of the lame man, who is famous for his walking and leaping and praising God (Acts 3:8), we read that all the people saw this and were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him (Acts 3:10).
More significantly, on the Day of Jesus’ crucifixion, we note that Jesus, the perfect and final Lamb of God, breathed his last and died at the precise moment of the ninth hour (3 p.m.) in the afternoon exactly when the Tamid was being killed and offered at the Temple!
We recall that the night before his death, Jesus had held the other two elements up before his followers; the bread anointed with oil and the wine - Jesus had said of the bread, this is my body which is broken for you, take, eat in remembrance of me. Likewise, he took the cup saying, this is my blood of the covenant, which is to be shed for many for forgiveness of sins (Matthew 26: 26f).
The very next day they nailed the Lamb of God himself to the accursed tree at the third hour, and he expired at the ninth hour, thus fulfilling all the three components of the Tamid which faithful Israel had observed for generations.
What a Saviour! God’s timing was perfect. And yes, it’s easier to see these things after their fulfillment. But there, right in the very centre of her national cultic life, was the Christ faithfully portrayed to Israel in the types and shadows of their prophetic word.
But wait, there is more! Not only was Jesus himself the sin offering sacrifice, but ...
Again, every commentator knows that Abraham’s offering up of his son Isaac is a beautiful depiction of Messiah’s sin-offering sacrifice at Calvary. Here’s how:
HE WAS THE SACRIFICE - A SIN-OFFERING SACRIFICE
YEHOVAH instructed Moses to offer the ‘Tamid’ or daily burnt offering. You find this in Exodus 29:38-43. Every single day, two unblemished one year old lambs were to be offered up on the altar, which was erected in front of the Holy of Holies. One lamb was offered in the morning and one at twilight (literally, between the two evenings) (Exodus 29:38-39).
There were two other components to the sacrifice. As well as the lamb offered at the third hour (9 a.m.) and at the ninth hour (3 p.m.) there was bread which was anointed with oil, and wine offered as a libation with the whole being an offering by fire to YEHOVAH” (Exodus 29:40-41).
Now here’s the thing. When the Temple was built, every morning one of the Levitical priests was selected to carry a beam of wood up the stairs to the massive bronze altar and to light the fire. The steps were 12 feet high, and the altar was 20 feet across!
Every devout Jew understood this was a portrayal and a remembrance of Isaac carrying the wood up for his own sacrifice! The imagery was rich and pregnant with meaning, for Jesus carried his own beam ‘straros’ to Calvary.
In the court outside where this priestly work was performed, the people would gather to do two things. First, they would recite their monotheistic creed, the Shema; Hear O Israel, YEHOVAH is our God, YEHOVAH is one. And you shall love the LORD your God … (Deuteronomy 6:4).
Then they would recite 18 Benedictions, or blessings. This daily Tamid went on for generations, right up, of course, to the days when Jesus walked in the Temple precincts.
On the Day of Pentecost, it seems Peter preached his famous sermon to the very crowd that had gathered outside the Temple for the morning burnt sacrifice for, we are told, it was the third hour, or 9 a.m.! And in the very next chapter, Peter and John were going up to the temple at the ninth hour, the hour of prayer (Acts 3: 1)!
After their miracle of the healing of the lame man, who is famous for his walking and leaping and praising God (Acts 3:8), we read that all the people saw this and were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him (Acts 3:10).
More significantly, on the Day of Jesus’ crucifixion, we note that Jesus, the perfect and final Lamb of God, breathed his last and died at the precise moment of the ninth hour (3 p.m.) in the afternoon exactly when the Tamid was being killed and offered at the Temple!
We recall that the night before his death, Jesus had held the other two elements up before his followers; the bread anointed with oil and the wine - Jesus had said of the bread, this is my body which is broken for you, take, eat in remembrance of me. Likewise, he took the cup saying, this is my blood of the covenant, which is to be shed for many for forgiveness of sins (Matthew 26: 26f).
The very next day they nailed the Lamb of God himself to the accursed tree at the third hour, and he expired at the ninth hour, thus fulfilling all the three components of the Tamid which faithful Israel had observed for generations.
What a Saviour! God’s timing was perfect. And yes, it’s easier to see these things after their fulfillment. But there, right in the very centre of her national cultic life, was the Christ faithfully portrayed to Israel in the types and shadows of their prophetic word.
But wait, there is more! Not only was Jesus himself the sin offering sacrifice, but ...
HE WAS THE OFFICIATING HIGH PRIEST MAKING THE OFFERING!
The soldiers, therefore, when they had crucified Jesus, took his outer garments, and made four parts, a part to every soldier and also the tunic; now the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece. They said therefore to one another, ‘Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it, to decide whose it shall be that the Scripture might be fulfilled, “They divided my outer garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.” Therefore, the soldiers did these things (John 19:23-25).
Why does the Gospel writer mention this seamless robe woven in one piece? Would it not be more symbolically significant if he had mentioned something like, “And there was growing next to the cross a hyssop bush?” Hyssop of course, was used to apply the blood of the lamb to the lintel and doorposts of the Exodus. But whether there was a hyssop bush there or not, is pure speculation.
So, why mention the seamless robe of the Messiah? It must be significant, for no detail in Scripture is without meaning. Josephus points out:
The high priest is indeed adorned with … a vestment of a blue colour. This also is a long robe, reaching to his feet … Now this vesture was not composed of two pieces, nor was it sewed together upon the shoulders and the sides, but it was one long vestment so woven as to have an aperture for the neck … (Antiquities, 3: 159-161).
The High Priest of Israel wore one long robe, not composed of two pieces, nor was it sewed together … but it was one long vestment so woven … This description fits perfectly with Exodus 39:22f which stipulated the high priest’s robe must be of woven work, all of blue with binding all around the opening for the neck that it might not be torn!
The seamless robe the soldiers cast lots for surely pointed to the Messiah as our High Priest? The book of Hebrews states that Jesus is the High Priest of our confession (Hebrews 3:1). He has entered into the heavenly sanctuary, within the veil (Hebrews 6:19), the Holiest of All, having offered up himself (Hebrews 7: 27), presenting his own blood as the all-sufficient sacrifice for his people for all time, thus obtaining eternal redemption for us (Hebrews 9:12).
All of which is to make the point that, Jesus the Messiah is both high priest and sin- offering sacrifice for us. Do you not think that, when he wrote his Gospel, John mentions that Jesus’ robe was seamless, woven in one piece for a deliberate purpose? Scripture was being fulfilled, therefore the soldiers did these things (John 19:25)!
All of this is to say that the Messiah is anticipated in the O.T., by various prophetic outlines which Bible scholars usually call ‘types’. Plainly speaking, this means the place to look for the Messiah in the O.T., is not as the Son of God Himself living and speaking and acting before his alleged incarnation - whether in the guise of “the Angel of the Lord - Yehovah” or as “God the Son”. Rather, we will find him in the many “examples” in the prophetic shadows which anticipated his promised arrival as God’s anointed human being.
All very good so far. But we still haven’t quite gotten to the bottom of our inquiry. Where did Jesus see himself in his Hebrew Bible?
Every Bible student knows that Jesus’ favourite theme concerned the Kingdom of God, or in Matthew’s Gospel, “the kingdom of heaven”. 5 When Jesus came proclaiming God’s kingdom was at hand his announcements came at a time when Jews were at fever pitch with anticipation that “the Coming one”, the promised Messianic Lord, might appear at any moment.
They found this hope particularly expressed in the book of Daniel in his oracle about the great statue of various metals representing the great pagan kingdoms of the earth (chapter 2). The vision declared God would set up a kingdom not made with human hands; that is to say, it is of heavenly origin - after the beastly kingdoms had run their course.
Indeed, God would send a stone to strike down the statue. The stone would pulverise the image of the statue into fine powder and then it would become a great mountain that filled the whole earth (Daniel 2:31-35).
Tom Wright, leading Bible historian and scholar notes:
The passage was regularly interpreted, from at least as early as the first century, to refer to the Messiah, and to the kingdom that would be set up through him.
First Century Jews believed that sometime during the reign of the fourth beast (the Roman Empire) God was going to send His all-conquering Messiah. Josephus himself mentions that this ambiguous oracle from the Jewish Bible more than all else incited [the Jews] to war with Rome since it proclaimed that one from their country would become ruler of the world. 7
This was the milieu, the cultural and Biblical context which Jesus worked in. It is this heavenly kingdom coming to govern the earth through God’s appointed Messiah which Jesus came announcing as happening soon… The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand (Mark 1: 15). We will not properly understand Jesus if we neglect this background.
Since the Kingdom of God was Jesus’ favourite topic, we must ask why his favourite self-description was to call himself the Son of Man (Matthew 11:18-19; Luke 9:57-58; Mark 14:21, etc.)?
The answer is that both concepts of the Kingdom of God and the Son of Man are joined in Jesus’ mind. He found both ideas linked inexorably in the Book of Daniel. 8 Specifically, Jesus saw himself in Daniel’s famous vision in chapter 7. There a Son of Man inherits/receives God’s promised kingdom, after the nefarious empires have run their course.
In his vision of the future, Daniel sees a progression of four beast kingdoms followed by the coming of one like a son of man (Daniel 7:12f). God’s final kingdom is given to this son of man in Daniel 7:13-14)
One like a Son of man was coming … and to him was given an everlasting dominion ...
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Note: “The Kingdom of heaven” does not mean “the kingdom located in heaven”. Rather, it means the kingdom that originates with or from God in heaven before it comes to the earth.
Note: Certainly the description son of man occurs in the Hebrew Bible as a generic term for a human being such as in Psalm 8: 4-5 or Ezekiel 2:1,3,6,8, etc. The double entendre suited Jesus’ purpose admirably in the volatile political climate of his day. However, observe carefully that Jesus uses the definite article, the Son of man, so has a specific individual in mind - himself!
_________________________________________________________
Putting the two visions from Daniel chapter 2 and chapter 7 together, we see the same sequence of the four pagan empires followed by the coming of the kingdom of God. In the first vision, the pagan empires are likened to various metals. In the second vision, the pagan empires are likened to various cruel beasts.
In the first vision, the coming conqueror is likened to a stone whose influence grows into a mountain, and whose kingdom will know no end. And in the second vision, the coming ruler and heir of God’s earthly kingdom is likened to a son of man.
There is neither room nor the reason in this brief article to elaborate all the details of these amazing prophecies. Sufficient for our purposes is to observe that, after the four kingdoms and their representative kings, comes the Son of Man and his everlasting kingdom. The Son of Man is the king of the fifth kingdom which happens to also be the kingdom of God on earth. That kingdom and its king will be established after the fourth beast is destroyed. (Read Daniel 7: 9-28).
When Jesus therefore came announcing God’s kingdom was at hand, and that he himself was that Son of Man, you can be sure Jesus had found himself in Daniel’s visions! However, unlike many of his contemporaries, Jesus didn’t stop reading Daniel there. For it is evident he went on to read of the sinister fate awaiting the Messiah, the Son of Man which Daniel also predicted. Not many Jews liked reading that bit! They only anticipated a glorious, all-conquering Messiah; not a condemned one.
Jesus knew beforehand how the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed (Mark 8:31). Notice that when speaking about this tragedy of public execution that he described these things as happening to the Son of Man. The Gospel of Mark says:
And he was speaking about this matter plainly (Mark 8:32).
How could Jesus be so adamant that the Son of Man must suffer … and be killed? Well, we can’t read the life of Jesus without noticing how many times he did something, said something, or an event happened, so that the Scriptures would be fulfilled. It is evident Jesus saw himself in his Bible as suffering a cruel death to fulfill God’s prophetic word.
As far as I am aware, there is only one place in all the OT where the Son of Man dies, and it’s Daniel’s Son of Man.
__________________________________________________________
We are on assignment to find where Jesus found himself in the O.T., Scriptures. Read about himself he certainly did, for he said, “The Scriptures bear witness of me” and, “Moses wrote about me” (John 5:39, 46; Luke 24:25-27).
We have now reached an exciting; and rather challenging; part of the journey. Jesus not only believed the predictions in the book of Daniel that he was the Son of Man destined to rule over the kingdom of God, but that as the Messiah, he must first suffer many things and be killed (Mark 8:31-32). As we shall see, he also read this in the Book of Daniel.
The only O.T., Book which names the angel Gabriel is Daniel. Besides Daniel, Gabriel appears only to two others: the father of John the Baptist, Zecharias and, the mother of Jesus, Mary. The significance of Gabriel’s connection with these three people will appear shortly.
Although Gabriel had the appearance of a man (Daniel 8:15), Daniel’s reaction to his first visit was exactly as mine (and probably yours) would have been with the sudden appearance of this supernatural visitor. Daniel shook with fear and fell on his face and descended into a comatose sleep. Gabriel had to touch him, wake him up, and tell him to stand up to listen (Daniel 8:18).
No such reaction is recorded the second time Gabriel appears in chapter nine. Daniel is a little more comfortable the second time round, it seems. Gabriel has been sent from the throne-room of heaven in response to Daniel’s agonized prayers and confessions for the sorry state of God’s people.
Let’s take a ‘squiz’ at what are the most controversial verses in the Book of Daniel - Daniel 9:24-27. In fact, one expositor’s famous remark sums up our challenge eloquently when he writes that, the history of the exegesis of the 70 Weeks of Daniel is the Dismal Swamp of O.T. criticism. 1
Daniel is about to hear staggering things concerning the future of his people Israel, the holy city Jerusalem, and its Temple, and indeed, events concerning the last days of our planet as we know it today. He is assured that God has not abandoned His people or forgotten His promises - even though everything is calculated to doubting that, for Israel is in exile and the City and the Temple are in ruins.
Gabriel will show Daniel the whole momentous sweep of human history right up to the time when God’s universal kingdom of righteousness is ushered in. Whether we like it or not, God’s great eschatological purposes for the entire world are bound up in Israel’s history and fortunes!
Gabriel summarises the whole future of planet earth in the ‘famous’ prophecy of The Seventy Weeks of Years. We find --- and so did Jesus --- the death of the Messiah explicitly foretold by Gabriel in the Seventy ‘sevens’ outlined in Daniel 9:24-27. Let’s read what the angel Gabriel says to Daniel:
Seventy “weeks of years” [= 490 years] are decreed concerning your people and your holy city, to finish transgression, to put an end to sin, and to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal both vision and prophet, and to anoint the most holy [the holy place or the holy one?].
Know therefore and understand that from the going forth of the word to restore and build Jerusalem to the coming of Messiah the Ruler there will be seven “weeks”. Then for sixty-two “weeks” it shall be built again with squares and moat, but in a troubled time.
The soldiers, therefore, when they had crucified Jesus, took his outer garments, and made four parts, a part to every soldier and also the tunic; now the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece. They said therefore to one another, ‘Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it, to decide whose it shall be that the Scripture might be fulfilled, “They divided my outer garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.” Therefore, the soldiers did these things (John 19:23-25).
Why does the Gospel writer mention this seamless robe woven in one piece? Would it not be more symbolically significant if he had mentioned something like, “And there was growing next to the cross a hyssop bush?” Hyssop of course, was used to apply the blood of the lamb to the lintel and doorposts of the Exodus. But whether there was a hyssop bush there or not, is pure speculation.
So, why mention the seamless robe of the Messiah? It must be significant, for no detail in Scripture is without meaning. Josephus points out:
The high priest is indeed adorned with … a vestment of a blue colour. This also is a long robe, reaching to his feet … Now this vesture was not composed of two pieces, nor was it sewed together upon the shoulders and the sides, but it was one long vestment so woven as to have an aperture for the neck … (Antiquities, 3: 159-161).
The High Priest of Israel wore one long robe, not composed of two pieces, nor was it sewed together … but it was one long vestment so woven … This description fits perfectly with Exodus 39:22f which stipulated the high priest’s robe must be of woven work, all of blue with binding all around the opening for the neck that it might not be torn!
The seamless robe the soldiers cast lots for surely pointed to the Messiah as our High Priest? The book of Hebrews states that Jesus is the High Priest of our confession (Hebrews 3:1). He has entered into the heavenly sanctuary, within the veil (Hebrews 6:19), the Holiest of All, having offered up himself (Hebrews 7: 27), presenting his own blood as the all-sufficient sacrifice for his people for all time, thus obtaining eternal redemption for us (Hebrews 9:12).
All of which is to make the point that, Jesus the Messiah is both high priest and sin- offering sacrifice for us. Do you not think that, when he wrote his Gospel, John mentions that Jesus’ robe was seamless, woven in one piece for a deliberate purpose? Scripture was being fulfilled, therefore the soldiers did these things (John 19:25)!
All of this is to say that the Messiah is anticipated in the O.T., by various prophetic outlines which Bible scholars usually call ‘types’. Plainly speaking, this means the place to look for the Messiah in the O.T., is not as the Son of God Himself living and speaking and acting before his alleged incarnation - whether in the guise of “the Angel of the Lord - Yehovah” or as “God the Son”. Rather, we will find him in the many “examples” in the prophetic shadows which anticipated his promised arrival as God’s anointed human being.
All very good so far. But we still haven’t quite gotten to the bottom of our inquiry. Where did Jesus see himself in his Hebrew Bible?
THE KINGDOM OF GOD
Every Bible student knows that Jesus’ favourite theme concerned the Kingdom of God, or in Matthew’s Gospel, “the kingdom of heaven”. 5 When Jesus came proclaiming God’s kingdom was at hand his announcements came at a time when Jews were at fever pitch with anticipation that “the Coming one”, the promised Messianic Lord, might appear at any moment.
They found this hope particularly expressed in the book of Daniel in his oracle about the great statue of various metals representing the great pagan kingdoms of the earth (chapter 2). The vision declared God would set up a kingdom not made with human hands; that is to say, it is of heavenly origin - after the beastly kingdoms had run their course.
Indeed, God would send a stone to strike down the statue. The stone would pulverise the image of the statue into fine powder and then it would become a great mountain that filled the whole earth (Daniel 2:31-35).
Tom Wright, leading Bible historian and scholar notes:
The passage was regularly interpreted, from at least as early as the first century, to refer to the Messiah, and to the kingdom that would be set up through him.
First Century Jews believed that sometime during the reign of the fourth beast (the Roman Empire) God was going to send His all-conquering Messiah. Josephus himself mentions that this ambiguous oracle from the Jewish Bible more than all else incited [the Jews] to war with Rome since it proclaimed that one from their country would become ruler of the world. 7
This was the milieu, the cultural and Biblical context which Jesus worked in. It is this heavenly kingdom coming to govern the earth through God’s appointed Messiah which Jesus came announcing as happening soon… The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand (Mark 1: 15). We will not properly understand Jesus if we neglect this background.
THE SON OF MAN
Since the Kingdom of God was Jesus’ favourite topic, we must ask why his favourite self-description was to call himself the Son of Man (Matthew 11:18-19; Luke 9:57-58; Mark 14:21, etc.)?
The answer is that both concepts of the Kingdom of God and the Son of Man are joined in Jesus’ mind. He found both ideas linked inexorably in the Book of Daniel. 8 Specifically, Jesus saw himself in Daniel’s famous vision in chapter 7. There a Son of Man inherits/receives God’s promised kingdom, after the nefarious empires have run their course.
In his vision of the future, Daniel sees a progression of four beast kingdoms followed by the coming of one like a son of man (Daniel 7:12f). God’s final kingdom is given to this son of man in Daniel 7:13-14)
One like a Son of man was coming … and to him was given an everlasting dominion ...
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Note: “The Kingdom of heaven” does not mean “the kingdom located in heaven”. Rather, it means the kingdom that originates with or from God in heaven before it comes to the earth.
Note: Certainly the description son of man occurs in the Hebrew Bible as a generic term for a human being such as in Psalm 8: 4-5 or Ezekiel 2:1,3,6,8, etc. The double entendre suited Jesus’ purpose admirably in the volatile political climate of his day. However, observe carefully that Jesus uses the definite article, the Son of man, so has a specific individual in mind - himself!
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Putting the two visions from Daniel chapter 2 and chapter 7 together, we see the same sequence of the four pagan empires followed by the coming of the kingdom of God. In the first vision, the pagan empires are likened to various metals. In the second vision, the pagan empires are likened to various cruel beasts.
In the first vision, the coming conqueror is likened to a stone whose influence grows into a mountain, and whose kingdom will know no end. And in the second vision, the coming ruler and heir of God’s earthly kingdom is likened to a son of man.
There is neither room nor the reason in this brief article to elaborate all the details of these amazing prophecies. Sufficient for our purposes is to observe that, after the four kingdoms and their representative kings, comes the Son of Man and his everlasting kingdom. The Son of Man is the king of the fifth kingdom which happens to also be the kingdom of God on earth. That kingdom and its king will be established after the fourth beast is destroyed. (Read Daniel 7: 9-28).
MESSIAH WOULD DIE
When Jesus therefore came announcing God’s kingdom was at hand, and that he himself was that Son of Man, you can be sure Jesus had found himself in Daniel’s visions! However, unlike many of his contemporaries, Jesus didn’t stop reading Daniel there. For it is evident he went on to read of the sinister fate awaiting the Messiah, the Son of Man which Daniel also predicted. Not many Jews liked reading that bit! They only anticipated a glorious, all-conquering Messiah; not a condemned one.
Jesus knew beforehand how the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed (Mark 8:31). Notice that when speaking about this tragedy of public execution that he described these things as happening to the Son of Man. The Gospel of Mark says:
And he was speaking about this matter plainly (Mark 8:32).
How could Jesus be so adamant that the Son of Man must suffer … and be killed? Well, we can’t read the life of Jesus without noticing how many times he did something, said something, or an event happened, so that the Scriptures would be fulfilled. It is evident Jesus saw himself in his Bible as suffering a cruel death to fulfill God’s prophetic word.
As far as I am aware, there is only one place in all the OT where the Son of Man dies, and it’s Daniel’s Son of Man.
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We have now reached an exciting; and rather challenging; part of the journey. Jesus not only believed the predictions in the book of Daniel that he was the Son of Man destined to rule over the kingdom of God, but that as the Messiah, he must first suffer many things and be killed (Mark 8:31-32). As we shall see, he also read this in the Book of Daniel.
THE ANGEL GABRIEL
The only O.T., Book which names the angel Gabriel is Daniel. Besides Daniel, Gabriel appears only to two others: the father of John the Baptist, Zecharias and, the mother of Jesus, Mary. The significance of Gabriel’s connection with these three people will appear shortly.
Although Gabriel had the appearance of a man (Daniel 8:15), Daniel’s reaction to his first visit was exactly as mine (and probably yours) would have been with the sudden appearance of this supernatural visitor. Daniel shook with fear and fell on his face and descended into a comatose sleep. Gabriel had to touch him, wake him up, and tell him to stand up to listen (Daniel 8:18).
No such reaction is recorded the second time Gabriel appears in chapter nine. Daniel is a little more comfortable the second time round, it seems. Gabriel has been sent from the throne-room of heaven in response to Daniel’s agonized prayers and confessions for the sorry state of God’s people.
DANIEL 9:24-27
Let’s take a ‘squiz’ at what are the most controversial verses in the Book of Daniel - Daniel 9:24-27. In fact, one expositor’s famous remark sums up our challenge eloquently when he writes that, the history of the exegesis of the 70 Weeks of Daniel is the Dismal Swamp of O.T. criticism. 1
Daniel is about to hear staggering things concerning the future of his people Israel, the holy city Jerusalem, and its Temple, and indeed, events concerning the last days of our planet as we know it today. He is assured that God has not abandoned His people or forgotten His promises - even though everything is calculated to doubting that, for Israel is in exile and the City and the Temple are in ruins.
Gabriel will show Daniel the whole momentous sweep of human history right up to the time when God’s universal kingdom of righteousness is ushered in. Whether we like it or not, God’s great eschatological purposes for the entire world are bound up in Israel’s history and fortunes!
THE SEVENTY WEEKS OF YEARS
Gabriel summarises the whole future of planet earth in the ‘famous’ prophecy of The Seventy Weeks of Years. We find --- and so did Jesus --- the death of the Messiah explicitly foretold by Gabriel in the Seventy ‘sevens’ outlined in Daniel 9:24-27. Let’s read what the angel Gabriel says to Daniel:
Seventy “weeks of years” [= 490 years] are decreed concerning your people and your holy city, to finish transgression, to put an end to sin, and to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal both vision and prophet, and to anoint the most holy [the holy place or the holy one?].
Know therefore and understand that from the going forth of the word to restore and build Jerusalem to the coming of Messiah the Ruler there will be seven “weeks”. Then for sixty-two “weeks” it shall be built again with squares and moat, but in a troubled time.
And after sixty-two “weeks”, a Messiah [Anointed one] shall be cut off and shall have nothing; and the people of [another] prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary: His end shall come with a flood, and to the end there shall be war; desolations are decreed. And he [the desolating prince] shall make a strong covenant with many for one “week”; and for half of the week he shall cause sacrifice and offering to cease; and upon the wing of abomination shall come one who makes desolate, until the decreed end is poured out on the desolator (Daniel 9:24-27). 2
This cryptic oracle is challenging for several reasons, but I will keep it down to a minimal simplicity (I hope)! To the best of my knowledge, this is the only specific prophecy stating both that the Messiah would be killed, and when exactly he would be put to death.
First, from Daniel’s perspective, this prophecy states that after one week of years [7 X 7= 49 years] the decree to rebuild Jerusalem will go forth. This happened under the Persian king Artaxerxes’ I. Then, says Gabriel, after a further sixty-two weeks of years there will arise the Messiah - another 434 years on top.
After this 69th (sixty-ninth) Heptad of years the Messiah will be cut off and shall have nothing (Daniel 9:26) - a prediction that when Messiah dies, he will not have received his promised kingdom - yet! Messiah’s death will come after Daniel’s 69th prophetic week. 3
The angel Gabriel seems to indicate that the last week of the prophecy, the 70th week, is annexed or severed from the previous 69 weeks; an indeterminate hiatus will devolve before the commencement of the final 70th week, and the “Grand Finale” when everlasting righteousness becomes the order of the day! There has been a gulf of 2,000 years time-lapse between the 69th heptad and the start of the 7Oth week! Which is to say, the 70th week is still in the future. 4
During this stand-alone final “week” God is going to again work particularly with the remnant faithful nation of Israel. To use the apostle Paul’s language, there is going to come a day when God will graft a repentant Israel back into His end-time purposes. Israel’s present partial hardening will come to an end after this gap-period (called the times of the Gentiles) has run its course.
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Note: The Hebrew word for “week” is shavua, and the Greek word heptad is equivalent to 7 years, hence the expression “week of years”. Some actually translate it as “seventy ‘sevens, and ‘sixty-two ‘sevens’, etc.
Note: The Hebrew word for cut off means “to kill” or “to put to death”.
Note: To grasp why the final 70th week has been annexed from the previous 69 weeks a careful study of 12 (twelve) passages is required. In essence Jesus and the NT writers see the final week with its Great Tribulation and the Desolator who abominates as still unfulfilled (e.g., Matthew 24; 2 Thessalonians 1-2; Revelation 17-18). Nothing in world history or Israel’s history has yet satisfied the requirements of this 70th week, which means this last week is yet to begin. In the NT the final seven- year period concludes with the Parousia, the literal return of Messiah to raise the righteous dead, to deliver Israel, to destroy the Antichrist, and to claim his universal kingdom of righteousness on behalf of His Father God!
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It is during this final 70th week that the Abomination of Desolation occurs, triggering the Great Tribulation (GT) which Jesus described as the worst period of suffering the world has ever had from the beginning of human history, and which never will be again (Matthew 24:21).
Therefore, those commentators who do not see Daniel’s 70th week as still unfulfilled commit a critical error. For, to believe the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70 by the Roman Titus completed Daniel’s prophecy of the 70 Weeks of Years commits one to the incomprehensible belief that the Great Tribulation has been running ever since!? That’s an impossibility given the Great Tribulation lasts but 3-and-a-half years, or halfway through the final 70th week of years (e.g., Revelation 11:2; 12:6; 13:5, etc.).
Now, while the world has been in a general state of distress, both before and after Jerusalem’s destruction by the Romans, by no stretch of the imagination did the sign of the Son of Man coming in the clouds with all the mighty angels of God to gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other, occur (Matthew 24:31). Even the sceptics know the simple fact that the Messiah has not returned, for they deride our great hope by mocking, “Where is the promise of His coming” ( 2 Peter 3:4)? Sometimes unbelievers see clearer than the sons of light (someone else said that before me)!
Jesus did not appear to the world just as lightning comes from the east, and flashes even to the west in A.D. 70 (Matthew 24:27). Messiah’s Millennial Kingdom was not inaugurated at that time. As John Lennox, Christian apologist and mathematician rightly explains:
It is obvious that the finishing of transgression and bringing in of everlasting righteousness, promised in Daniel 9:24, did not occur in AD 33, 70 or any subsequent time up to the present - Justice is not done, the saints do not receive the kingdom, nor is everlasting righteousness brought in until the Son of Man comes in the clouds of heaven (Matthew 24: 30). 5
Or, to use Gabriel’s language, A.D. 70 did not see an end to sin. Rather, it’s been exactly as Gabriel told Daniel - and what Jesus himself said - even to the end there will be war; desolations are determined (Daniel 9:26; Matthew 24:6-8). A.D. 70 did not bring in everlasting righteousness (Daniel 9:24)!
And most definitely, by no stretch of the imagination in AD 70 was there the resurrection of those who sleep in the dust of the earth to everlasting life that Daniel and Jesus agree will happen after the Great Tribulation, after the abomination of desolation and at the appearing of the Messiah in his glory (Daniel 12:1; I Thessalonians 4:16f).
However, even if we stick to the many commentators who insist that Daniel’s 70th week was completed at the Roman destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70, the period of 490 years (“seventy weeks of years”) looks like this according to the Catholic theologian Brant Pitre :-
Daniel’s Prophecy - Historical Events - Dates
Going forth of the word to Decree to rebuild Temple ca. 457 BC. Restore and build Jerusalem. by king Artaxerxes of Persia.
Seventy weeks of years. 70 X 7 years = 490 years 457 BC - AD 33
Messiah will be ‘cut off’. Jesus is crucified. ca. AD 33
City and Sanctuary destroyed. Romans destroy both. AD 70 7
John D. Lennox arrives at the same time for Christ’s crucifixion by correcting the start-time for the decree by Artaxerxes I, making him issue his decree in the year 444 B.C. (Ezra 4:21) and by calculating according to the Jewish solar calendar which was almost certainly the schedule used in Daniel. 8
Lennox says:
Hence … 490 minus 7 = 483 years from the decree would bring us to what we call the first half of the first century AD. In fact, it brings us to the 30’s AD, which is remarkable since Daniel says that at that time an anointed one shall be cut off (Daniel 9: 26), surely this was fulfilled when Jesus of Nazareth, who claimed to be the anointed one (Messiah) of God, was “cut off” by being crucified in Jerusalem - in or around AD 30. 9
As I have already stated, this prophecy of The 70 Weeks of Years is, to the best of my knowledge, the only place in Jesus’ Bible where both the fact of Messiah’s death and the timing of his being killed appear together. It is indeed, a remarkably specific timeline for the arrival and execution of Israel’s future Messianic Ruler.
What a faith-builder this is! The O.T., precisely predicted that the Messiah would come and be killed around AD 30! This is exactly how the prophecy was viewed by Josephus the First Century Jewish historian in his Antiquities, 10.267-68;
We are convinced … that Daniel spoke with God, for he did not only prophesy future events, as did the other prophets, but he also determined the time at which these would come to pass.
This Messianic interpretation of Daniel 9:24-27 has a long tradition in the church, especially from the end of the Second Century onwards. The Fourth Century historian Eusebius, writing in The Proof of the Gospel, 8.2.389 summarises this tradition succinctly:
We must count the numbers, the seventy weeks, which are 490 years, from the going forth of the word of answer and from the building of Jerusalem. This took place in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes, King of Persia. For Nehemiah his cupbearer made the request, and received the answer that Jerusalem should be rebuilt, and the order went forth to carry it out … And from that date to the coming of the Messiah is seventy weeks.
Daniel’s prophecy clearly anticipated the Messiah’s arrival and crucifixion in the First Century! No wonder even non-believers in Jesus of Nazareth like Josephus were over-awed at the accuracy of Daniel’s predictions.
_________________________________________________________
THE SON OF MAN WILL BE “CUT OFF”
This cryptic oracle is challenging for several reasons, but I will keep it down to a minimal simplicity (I hope)! To the best of my knowledge, this is the only specific prophecy stating both that the Messiah would be killed, and when exactly he would be put to death.
First, from Daniel’s perspective, this prophecy states that after one week of years [7 X 7= 49 years] the decree to rebuild Jerusalem will go forth. This happened under the Persian king Artaxerxes’ I. Then, says Gabriel, after a further sixty-two weeks of years there will arise the Messiah - another 434 years on top.
After this 69th (sixty-ninth) Heptad of years the Messiah will be cut off and shall have nothing (Daniel 9:26) - a prediction that when Messiah dies, he will not have received his promised kingdom - yet! Messiah’s death will come after Daniel’s 69th prophetic week. 3
THE SEVENTIETH WEEK
The angel Gabriel seems to indicate that the last week of the prophecy, the 70th week, is annexed or severed from the previous 69 weeks; an indeterminate hiatus will devolve before the commencement of the final 70th week, and the “Grand Finale” when everlasting righteousness becomes the order of the day! There has been a gulf of 2,000 years time-lapse between the 69th heptad and the start of the 7Oth week! Which is to say, the 70th week is still in the future. 4
During this stand-alone final “week” God is going to again work particularly with the remnant faithful nation of Israel. To use the apostle Paul’s language, there is going to come a day when God will graft a repentant Israel back into His end-time purposes. Israel’s present partial hardening will come to an end after this gap-period (called the times of the Gentiles) has run its course.
_________________________________________________________
Note: The Hebrew word for “week” is shavua, and the Greek word heptad is equivalent to 7 years, hence the expression “week of years”. Some actually translate it as “seventy ‘sevens, and ‘sixty-two ‘sevens’, etc.
Note: The Hebrew word for cut off means “to kill” or “to put to death”.
Note: To grasp why the final 70th week has been annexed from the previous 69 weeks a careful study of 12 (twelve) passages is required. In essence Jesus and the NT writers see the final week with its Great Tribulation and the Desolator who abominates as still unfulfilled (e.g., Matthew 24; 2 Thessalonians 1-2; Revelation 17-18). Nothing in world history or Israel’s history has yet satisfied the requirements of this 70th week, which means this last week is yet to begin. In the NT the final seven- year period concludes with the Parousia, the literal return of Messiah to raise the righteous dead, to deliver Israel, to destroy the Antichrist, and to claim his universal kingdom of righteousness on behalf of His Father God!
_________________________________________________________
It is during this final 70th week that the Abomination of Desolation occurs, triggering the Great Tribulation (GT) which Jesus described as the worst period of suffering the world has ever had from the beginning of human history, and which never will be again (Matthew 24:21).
Therefore, those commentators who do not see Daniel’s 70th week as still unfulfilled commit a critical error. For, to believe the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70 by the Roman Titus completed Daniel’s prophecy of the 70 Weeks of Years commits one to the incomprehensible belief that the Great Tribulation has been running ever since!? That’s an impossibility given the Great Tribulation lasts but 3-and-a-half years, or halfway through the final 70th week of years (e.g., Revelation 11:2; 12:6; 13:5, etc.).
Now, while the world has been in a general state of distress, both before and after Jerusalem’s destruction by the Romans, by no stretch of the imagination did the sign of the Son of Man coming in the clouds with all the mighty angels of God to gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other, occur (Matthew 24:31). Even the sceptics know the simple fact that the Messiah has not returned, for they deride our great hope by mocking, “Where is the promise of His coming” ( 2 Peter 3:4)? Sometimes unbelievers see clearer than the sons of light (someone else said that before me)!
Jesus did not appear to the world just as lightning comes from the east, and flashes even to the west in A.D. 70 (Matthew 24:27). Messiah’s Millennial Kingdom was not inaugurated at that time. As John Lennox, Christian apologist and mathematician rightly explains:
It is obvious that the finishing of transgression and bringing in of everlasting righteousness, promised in Daniel 9:24, did not occur in AD 33, 70 or any subsequent time up to the present - Justice is not done, the saints do not receive the kingdom, nor is everlasting righteousness brought in until the Son of Man comes in the clouds of heaven (Matthew 24: 30). 5
Or, to use Gabriel’s language, A.D. 70 did not see an end to sin. Rather, it’s been exactly as Gabriel told Daniel - and what Jesus himself said - even to the end there will be war; desolations are determined (Daniel 9:26; Matthew 24:6-8). A.D. 70 did not bring in everlasting righteousness (Daniel 9:24)!
And most definitely, by no stretch of the imagination in AD 70 was there the resurrection of those who sleep in the dust of the earth to everlasting life that Daniel and Jesus agree will happen after the Great Tribulation, after the abomination of desolation and at the appearing of the Messiah in his glory (Daniel 12:1; I Thessalonians 4:16f).
However, even if we stick to the many commentators who insist that Daniel’s 70th week was completed at the Roman destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70, the period of 490 years (“seventy weeks of years”) looks like this according to the Catholic theologian Brant Pitre :-
THE TIME OF MESSIAH’S DEATH IN DANIEL 9. 6
Daniel’s Prophecy - Historical Events - Dates
Going forth of the word to Decree to rebuild Temple ca. 457 BC. Restore and build Jerusalem. by king Artaxerxes of Persia.
Seventy weeks of years. 70 X 7 years = 490 years 457 BC - AD 33
Messiah will be ‘cut off’. Jesus is crucified. ca. AD 33
City and Sanctuary destroyed. Romans destroy both. AD 70 7
John D. Lennox arrives at the same time for Christ’s crucifixion by correcting the start-time for the decree by Artaxerxes I, making him issue his decree in the year 444 B.C. (Ezra 4:21) and by calculating according to the Jewish solar calendar which was almost certainly the schedule used in Daniel. 8
Lennox says:
Hence … 490 minus 7 = 483 years from the decree would bring us to what we call the first half of the first century AD. In fact, it brings us to the 30’s AD, which is remarkable since Daniel says that at that time an anointed one shall be cut off (Daniel 9: 26), surely this was fulfilled when Jesus of Nazareth, who claimed to be the anointed one (Messiah) of God, was “cut off” by being crucified in Jerusalem - in or around AD 30. 9
As I have already stated, this prophecy of The 70 Weeks of Years is, to the best of my knowledge, the only place in Jesus’ Bible where both the fact of Messiah’s death and the timing of his being killed appear together. It is indeed, a remarkably specific timeline for the arrival and execution of Israel’s future Messianic Ruler.
What a faith-builder this is! The O.T., precisely predicted that the Messiah would come and be killed around AD 30! This is exactly how the prophecy was viewed by Josephus the First Century Jewish historian in his Antiquities, 10.267-68;
We are convinced … that Daniel spoke with God, for he did not only prophesy future events, as did the other prophets, but he also determined the time at which these would come to pass.
This Messianic interpretation of Daniel 9:24-27 has a long tradition in the church, especially from the end of the Second Century onwards. The Fourth Century historian Eusebius, writing in The Proof of the Gospel, 8.2.389 summarises this tradition succinctly:
We must count the numbers, the seventy weeks, which are 490 years, from the going forth of the word of answer and from the building of Jerusalem. This took place in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes, King of Persia. For Nehemiah his cupbearer made the request, and received the answer that Jerusalem should be rebuilt, and the order went forth to carry it out … And from that date to the coming of the Messiah is seventy weeks.
Daniel’s prophecy clearly anticipated the Messiah’s arrival and crucifixion in the First Century! No wonder even non-believers in Jesus of Nazareth like Josephus were over-awed at the accuracy of Daniel’s predictions.
_________________________________________________________
Note: I believe commentators who follow this timeline fail to consider that the heptads should be calculated according to the Jewish lunar calendar, and not our Gregorian solar calendar. This system also accords with the Babylonian reckoning suitable to Daniel’s period.
Note: The command to rebuild Jerusalem is connected to either of two decrees made by Artaxerxes I; Either to Ezra ca 458 BC or to Nehemiah ca 445 BC. Therefore, the end of the first set of ‘seven weeks’ (49 years) coincides with the completion of the work of Ezra and Nehemiah in restoring Jerusalem in either 409 BC or 396 BC.
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I mentioned previously that Gabriel appears by name to only three persons in the entire Bible --- to Daniel, to Zacharias and to Mary. Observe the connecting dots ...
This angel appears to Daniel at the time of the evening sacrifice (Dan. 9:21). Is it a coincidence that, when he next appears, Gabriel comes to Zacharias (who is the ministering priest in the Temple) at the hour of the incense offering? Timing in this case is instructive! Another critical prophetic announcement is about to be announced!
Gabriel stands to the right of the altar of incense (Luke 1:10-11) close to the Golden Lampstand (the Menorah). Placement also is significant, for Gabriel is probably symbolically portraying the fact that, the Messiah will be both sacrifice and light for Israel and the world! He stands there between altar and lampstand to announce that Zacharias’s miracle boy is going to announce the Messiah’s arrival! Gabriel tells Zacharias that he and Elizabeth will have a son who will be the forerunner of the Messiah, the Anointed one. Which is to say, Gabriel is announcing they were at the fulfilment of the 69th “week” - right on cue!
A few months later, Gabriel next appears to Mary. He announces the miraculous birth of the long-awaited Messiah of Israel (and of the world) will be conceived by the overshadowing power of God’s Spirit and the holy child to be begotten in her will be the Son of God, the Messiah (Luke 1:35). The great eschatological hour of salvation has come. God has not forgotten His promises. He has not abandoned His people. He has not forgotten the salvation of the world through Israel’s Messiah! He has not forgotten the prophecy he sent Gabriel to outline for Daniel in The Seventy Weeks of Years.
Thus, in the Bible, Gabriel is always associated with matters of eschatology - what the old-timers called the denouement of this present age. Gabriel is always associated with God’s world-changing supernatural interventions into the prophetic movement of history.
When Zacharias doubted the word of Gabriel that he and his wife Elizabeth would parent the forerunner of Messiah, the angel of the LORD - YEHOVAH rebuked him, “I am Gabriel who stands in the presence of God; and I have been sent to speak to you, and to bring you this good news. And behold, you shall be silent and unable to speak until the day when these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which shall be fulfilled in their proper time” (Luke 1:19-20).
Does failure to believe Gabriel still bring a curse of muted silence?
I wonder, I just wonder whether the church - which by and large misses or dismisses Gabriel’s message concerning God’s prophetic outline of The Seventy Weeks of Years - has not suffered a similar judgment to Zacharias? Has our failure to proclaim the great predictions of the Gospel message of the Messiah’s coming universal Kingdom of everlasting righteousness -which the Messiah himself also endorsed from Daniel - muted the Spirit’s power from the church’s witness?
To disbelieve Gabriel, to disbelieve Daniel, is to also fail to hold the testimony of Jesus and is to quench his spirit of prophecy (Revelation 19: 10).
How long before Daniel’s final 70th week begins, we do not know. Daniel’s predictions concerning the Son of Man (which Jesus loved and trusted so much) must be very near to happening. One thing is for sure, though. Jesus saw in Daniel the prophet his Messianic calling --- he must be killed before he would rule the world in God’s kingdom of everlasting righteousness. Surely the informed and wise believer will listen to Gabriel through Daniel, too (Matthew 24:15)!4
So, Jesus definitely saw himself in the book of Daniel as both the future glorified Son of Man reigning over God’s earthly kingdom on behalf of the saints (Daniel 7:13f), and yes, he also saw himself as the crucified Messiah who must first be cut off without initially inheriting that kingdom (Daniel 9:24f). But where did he find himself in those sacred pages foretelling his bodily resurrection?
Jesus knew his Bible predicted his bodily resurrection:
Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Messiah should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead (Luke 24:45).
After the resurrection the disciples learned that Jesus’ resurrection was predicted in the O.T.
Then the other disciple who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; for as yet they did not know the scripture, that he must rise from the dead (John 20: 8-9).
For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that the Messiah died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures (I Corinthians 15:3-4).
We must ask the inevitable question. Exactly where in the O.T., scriptures did Jesus see himself raised again after being dead for 3 days? To the best of my knowledge there is no explicit prophecy of the Messiah being raised again on the third day!
Some commentators appeal to the obscure passage in Hosea 6:1-2 which speaks about a group of people being raised up to life on the third day. However, this does not seem to fit the individual Jesus, for the context refers to a resurrection of the people of Israel after a national repentance. The idea seems to be that of a regathering of the twelve tribes after a time of exile -reasonable imagery where national restoration is pictured as a coming back from the dead.
So, let’s press the question again. What Scripture(s) does Jesus’ resurrection from the dead on the third day fulfill? There surely must be some other place where the connection is more obvious? Well, I think Jesus himself gave the clue when the unbelieving scribes and pharisees challenged him, “Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you” (Matthew 12:38-41; Luke 11: 29-32).
But he answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign; but no sign shall be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the whale, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
The men of Nineveh will arise at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, someone greater than Jonah is here.”
Evidently in Jesus’ mind there was a real parallel between Jonah’s cryptic sign and his own resurrection after three days and three nights in the grave, or as Jesus put it, in the heart of the earth. 1
Perhaps I am not alone in imagining that Jonah’s being preserved alive in the belly of the great fish,or a sea monster as it may be equally translated, didn’t seem like such a big deal.
There is no denying it would be a miracle for a man to be kept alive in the belly of a huge sea creature for three days. In my Sunday school days, I used to imagine Jonah inside a very dark, humid, and very smelly stomach with the seaweed wrapped around his ears! I imagined Jonah’s own stomach pitching as that huge fish dove to the depths as he desperately cried out to God. Some joyride!
True. Many sceptics dismiss Jonah’s preservation as an unlikely tale. But even for those of us who take the authority of the Scriptures seriously, what’s the big deal about that monster spitting Jonah up onto the beach after being “pickled alive” three days and three nights in that tomb-like prison?
Our Lord took Jonah’s story as an account of actual history. He believed his Hebrew Bible on many questions which today’s society dismisses as pure fable or religious myth. Jesus believed for instance, that our cosmos was the work of an intelligent Creator, his heavenly Father, and not the product of blind chance. He believed in the historicity of Noah and the Great Flood. He believed Abraham, Moses, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel and in this case Jonah, were real space-time men whose stories were real.
Then one day the lights came on for me. I carefully read Jonah’s prayer as he descended into the depths of the raging ocean. What happened is a lot more dramatic and more impossible (!?) than even being preserved alive inside a great sea monster for three days.
Let’s take a close look at what happened as Jonah was tossed into the raging sea by the sailors. (The Greek version follows the Hebrew very closely, by the way.) As he was sinking into the dark depths of the ocean, Jonah felt he was drowning under the curse of God. Now here’s the question. Did that fearsome sea monster, which YEHOVAH had commanded to swallow Jonah up, swallow him before he drowned, before he died, so he could get a gulp of air inside that great fish? Hmm. If you would have asked me that before a closer reading of the text, I would have answered that Jonah was swallowed alive, thus preserved alive, by that sea monster. It’s probably the impression we have all received through childhood impressions.
Now I have changed my mind (it’s been well said that he who does not change his mind about anything never changes anything!). I think the text shows that Jonah was scooped up dead from the bottom as his corpse lay entangled in the weeds. Don’t rush over this:
“I bellowed out [eboeesa] to YEHOVAH out of my distress, and He answered me. I cried out for help from the depth of Sheol [ek koilias adou] ; You did hear my voice. For You cast me into the depths of the heart [kardias thalassees] of the seas, and the current engulfed me. All Your breakers and billows passed over me.
“So, I said, ‘I have been expelled from Your Presence. Shall I look again toward Your holy temple?’ Waters closed in over me, to my very soul [psyche]. Into the fissures of mountains, I descended into the depths [abussos … i.e., abyss] of the earth whose bars hold tight forever. Yet, O YEHOVAH my God, you brought up my life from the Pit [or, according to the LXX, brought up my life from corruption].
“My soul [psyche] was failing [or, fainting … ekleipein] me; I remembered YEHOVAH …” (Jonah 2:2-8). 2
A gripping, dramatic, ripper of a story for sure! However, if we take it that Jonah was scooped up alive by the fish before hitting the bottom of the ocean drowned dead, wouldn’t you think Jesus was stretching the facts to teach this event was the only sign he would give to the unbelievers of his generation to prove his Messianic claims?
Taken this traditional way, Jonah’s story would at best be a metaphor for resurrection. It might even add weight to the sceptic whose theory is that Jesus only “swooned”, and did not actually die. As another theologian has admitted:
But this didn’t seem to me to be the most impressive prophecy of the resurrection you could come up with … And do you know what I found? I found that the problem wasn’t with Jesus; it was with me. (I’m learning that this is usually the case.)
Note: The command to rebuild Jerusalem is connected to either of two decrees made by Artaxerxes I; Either to Ezra ca 458 BC or to Nehemiah ca 445 BC. Therefore, the end of the first set of ‘seven weeks’ (49 years) coincides with the completion of the work of Ezra and Nehemiah in restoring Jerusalem in either 409 BC or 396 BC.
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BACK TO GABRIEL
I mentioned previously that Gabriel appears by name to only three persons in the entire Bible --- to Daniel, to Zacharias and to Mary. Observe the connecting dots ...
This angel appears to Daniel at the time of the evening sacrifice (Dan. 9:21). Is it a coincidence that, when he next appears, Gabriel comes to Zacharias (who is the ministering priest in the Temple) at the hour of the incense offering? Timing in this case is instructive! Another critical prophetic announcement is about to be announced!
Gabriel stands to the right of the altar of incense (Luke 1:10-11) close to the Golden Lampstand (the Menorah). Placement also is significant, for Gabriel is probably symbolically portraying the fact that, the Messiah will be both sacrifice and light for Israel and the world! He stands there between altar and lampstand to announce that Zacharias’s miracle boy is going to announce the Messiah’s arrival! Gabriel tells Zacharias that he and Elizabeth will have a son who will be the forerunner of the Messiah, the Anointed one. Which is to say, Gabriel is announcing they were at the fulfilment of the 69th “week” - right on cue!
A few months later, Gabriel next appears to Mary. He announces the miraculous birth of the long-awaited Messiah of Israel (and of the world) will be conceived by the overshadowing power of God’s Spirit and the holy child to be begotten in her will be the Son of God, the Messiah (Luke 1:35). The great eschatological hour of salvation has come. God has not forgotten His promises. He has not abandoned His people. He has not forgotten the salvation of the world through Israel’s Messiah! He has not forgotten the prophecy he sent Gabriel to outline for Daniel in The Seventy Weeks of Years.
Thus, in the Bible, Gabriel is always associated with matters of eschatology - what the old-timers called the denouement of this present age. Gabriel is always associated with God’s world-changing supernatural interventions into the prophetic movement of history.
COINCIDENCE?
When Zacharias doubted the word of Gabriel that he and his wife Elizabeth would parent the forerunner of Messiah, the angel of the LORD - YEHOVAH rebuked him, “I am Gabriel who stands in the presence of God; and I have been sent to speak to you, and to bring you this good news. And behold, you shall be silent and unable to speak until the day when these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which shall be fulfilled in their proper time” (Luke 1:19-20).
Does failure to believe Gabriel still bring a curse of muted silence?
I wonder, I just wonder whether the church - which by and large misses or dismisses Gabriel’s message concerning God’s prophetic outline of The Seventy Weeks of Years - has not suffered a similar judgment to Zacharias? Has our failure to proclaim the great predictions of the Gospel message of the Messiah’s coming universal Kingdom of everlasting righteousness -which the Messiah himself also endorsed from Daniel - muted the Spirit’s power from the church’s witness?
To disbelieve Gabriel, to disbelieve Daniel, is to also fail to hold the testimony of Jesus and is to quench his spirit of prophecy (Revelation 19: 10).
How long before Daniel’s final 70th week begins, we do not know. Daniel’s predictions concerning the Son of Man (which Jesus loved and trusted so much) must be very near to happening. One thing is for sure, though. Jesus saw in Daniel the prophet his Messianic calling --- he must be killed before he would rule the world in God’s kingdom of everlasting righteousness. Surely the informed and wise believer will listen to Gabriel through Daniel, too (Matthew 24:15)!4
So, Jesus definitely saw himself in the book of Daniel as both the future glorified Son of Man reigning over God’s earthly kingdom on behalf of the saints (Daniel 7:13f), and yes, he also saw himself as the crucified Messiah who must first be cut off without initially inheriting that kingdom (Daniel 9:24f). But where did he find himself in those sacred pages foretelling his bodily resurrection?
WHERE IS THE RESURRECTION OF JESUS PREDICTED IN THE O.T.?
Jesus knew his Bible predicted his bodily resurrection:
Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Messiah should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead (Luke 24:45).
After the resurrection the disciples learned that Jesus’ resurrection was predicted in the O.T.
Then the other disciple who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; for as yet they did not know the scripture, that he must rise from the dead (John 20: 8-9).
For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that the Messiah died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures (I Corinthians 15:3-4).
We must ask the inevitable question. Exactly where in the O.T., scriptures did Jesus see himself raised again after being dead for 3 days? To the best of my knowledge there is no explicit prophecy of the Messiah being raised again on the third day!
Some commentators appeal to the obscure passage in Hosea 6:1-2 which speaks about a group of people being raised up to life on the third day. However, this does not seem to fit the individual Jesus, for the context refers to a resurrection of the people of Israel after a national repentance. The idea seems to be that of a regathering of the twelve tribes after a time of exile -reasonable imagery where national restoration is pictured as a coming back from the dead.
So, let’s press the question again. What Scripture(s) does Jesus’ resurrection from the dead on the third day fulfill? There surely must be some other place where the connection is more obvious? Well, I think Jesus himself gave the clue when the unbelieving scribes and pharisees challenged him, “Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you” (Matthew 12:38-41; Luke 11: 29-32).
But he answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign; but no sign shall be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the whale, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
The men of Nineveh will arise at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, someone greater than Jonah is here.”
Evidently in Jesus’ mind there was a real parallel between Jonah’s cryptic sign and his own resurrection after three days and three nights in the grave, or as Jesus put it, in the heart of the earth. 1
Perhaps I am not alone in imagining that Jonah’s being preserved alive in the belly of the great fish,or a sea monster as it may be equally translated, didn’t seem like such a big deal.
There is no denying it would be a miracle for a man to be kept alive in the belly of a huge sea creature for three days. In my Sunday school days, I used to imagine Jonah inside a very dark, humid, and very smelly stomach with the seaweed wrapped around his ears! I imagined Jonah’s own stomach pitching as that huge fish dove to the depths as he desperately cried out to God. Some joyride!
True. Many sceptics dismiss Jonah’s preservation as an unlikely tale. But even for those of us who take the authority of the Scriptures seriously, what’s the big deal about that monster spitting Jonah up onto the beach after being “pickled alive” three days and three nights in that tomb-like prison?
Our Lord took Jonah’s story as an account of actual history. He believed his Hebrew Bible on many questions which today’s society dismisses as pure fable or religious myth. Jesus believed for instance, that our cosmos was the work of an intelligent Creator, his heavenly Father, and not the product of blind chance. He believed in the historicity of Noah and the Great Flood. He believed Abraham, Moses, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel and in this case Jonah, were real space-time men whose stories were real.
JONAH ACTUALLY DIED!
Then one day the lights came on for me. I carefully read Jonah’s prayer as he descended into the depths of the raging ocean. What happened is a lot more dramatic and more impossible (!?) than even being preserved alive inside a great sea monster for three days.
Let’s take a close look at what happened as Jonah was tossed into the raging sea by the sailors. (The Greek version follows the Hebrew very closely, by the way.) As he was sinking into the dark depths of the ocean, Jonah felt he was drowning under the curse of God. Now here’s the question. Did that fearsome sea monster, which YEHOVAH had commanded to swallow Jonah up, swallow him before he drowned, before he died, so he could get a gulp of air inside that great fish? Hmm. If you would have asked me that before a closer reading of the text, I would have answered that Jonah was swallowed alive, thus preserved alive, by that sea monster. It’s probably the impression we have all received through childhood impressions.
Now I have changed my mind (it’s been well said that he who does not change his mind about anything never changes anything!). I think the text shows that Jonah was scooped up dead from the bottom as his corpse lay entangled in the weeds. Don’t rush over this:
“I bellowed out [eboeesa] to YEHOVAH out of my distress, and He answered me. I cried out for help from the depth of Sheol [ek koilias adou] ; You did hear my voice. For You cast me into the depths of the heart [kardias thalassees] of the seas, and the current engulfed me. All Your breakers and billows passed over me.
“So, I said, ‘I have been expelled from Your Presence. Shall I look again toward Your holy temple?’ Waters closed in over me, to my very soul [psyche]. Into the fissures of mountains, I descended into the depths [abussos … i.e., abyss] of the earth whose bars hold tight forever. Yet, O YEHOVAH my God, you brought up my life from the Pit [or, according to the LXX, brought up my life from corruption].
“My soul [psyche] was failing [or, fainting … ekleipein] me; I remembered YEHOVAH …” (Jonah 2:2-8). 2
A gripping, dramatic, ripper of a story for sure! However, if we take it that Jonah was scooped up alive by the fish before hitting the bottom of the ocean drowned dead, wouldn’t you think Jesus was stretching the facts to teach this event was the only sign he would give to the unbelievers of his generation to prove his Messianic claims?
Taken this traditional way, Jonah’s story would at best be a metaphor for resurrection. It might even add weight to the sceptic whose theory is that Jesus only “swooned”, and did not actually die. As another theologian has admitted:
But this didn’t seem to me to be the most impressive prophecy of the resurrection you could come up with … And do you know what I found? I found that the problem wasn’t with Jesus; it was with me. (I’m learning that this is usually the case.)
If you read the book of Jonah carefully, you will discover something interesting: the author of the book never claims that Jonah remained alive for three days and three nights in the fish.1
Let’s see how the text explicitly reveals that Jonah died. Did you notice that Jonah cried out to God from the depth of Sheol [ek koilias adou literally could be taken as “from the belly of Sheol”]? Bible students know that Sheol (or as is often translated, the Pit) is the stock standard Hebrew term for the realm of the dead --- or if you prefer, the grave (e.g., Psalm 139:7-8; Job 17: 13-16; 33: 22-30).
But you might say, perhaps this was just a near-death experience? Lots of folks claim to have been “dead” but have come back to tell the story. Wasn’t this all that happened to Jonah? He nearly died.
In the Bible, to be in Sheol, to be in the grave, is to be in a state of irreversible corruption. That word applies to a dead person, who ceases to exist except in God’s remembrance for a future day!
This cannot mean that Jonah’s ‘soul’ was conscious in Sheol as is popularly held today. Jonah says he was called up from corruption. That word corruption also recalls the famous text about Jesus being in Sheol: You will not abandon my soul to Hades, nor allow Your holy One to undergo decay/corruption (Acts 2:27)
Let’s see how the text explicitly reveals that Jonah died. Did you notice that Jonah cried out to God from the depth of Sheol [ek koilias adou literally could be taken as “from the belly of Sheol”]? Bible students know that Sheol (or as is often translated, the Pit) is the stock standard Hebrew term for the realm of the dead --- or if you prefer, the grave (e.g., Psalm 139:7-8; Job 17: 13-16; 33: 22-30).
But you might say, perhaps this was just a near-death experience? Lots of folks claim to have been “dead” but have come back to tell the story. Wasn’t this all that happened to Jonah? He nearly died.
In the Bible, to be in Sheol, to be in the grave, is to be in a state of irreversible corruption. That word applies to a dead person, who ceases to exist except in God’s remembrance for a future day!
This cannot mean that Jonah’s ‘soul’ was conscious in Sheol as is popularly held today. Jonah says he was called up from corruption. That word corruption also recalls the famous text about Jesus being in Sheol: You will not abandon my soul to Hades, nor allow Your holy One to undergo decay/corruption (Acts 2:27)
Note: Ecclesiastes 9:5: the dead know nothing, and they have no more reward, for the memory of them is forgotten.
To be in Sheol is to be dead, in a place of corruption. Same words as used for Jonah! Let’s continue with the text before coming to any firm conclusion; When my soul fainted within me, I remembered YEHOVAH; and my prayer came to you, into your holy temple. And YEHOVAH spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah up onto the dry ground. Now the word of YEHOVAH came to Jonah the second time, saying, ‘Arise, [anasteemi in the Greek but cumi in the Hebrew] go to Nineveh, that great city and proclaim to it the proclamation I am going to tell you. So Jonah arose [anestee] … (Jonah 2:7, 10 - 3:1-3).
Did you also notice that Jonah says, “My soul [psyche in the LXX but nephesh in the Hebrew] fainted [ekleipein]? This is another classic Hebrew way for saying Jonah died. His very life was gone.
But God had other plans. All was not hopeless and lost. His first word to Jonah from the depth of Sheol is the same Semitic word that Jesus uses when he raised Jairus’ daughter from the dead - Arise! Jesus’ word to the dead girl is, ‘Talitha cumi” which is to say, “Little girl, I say to you arise!” Or as it appears in our Greek text, “Talitha koum, which being interpreted is, Girl, I say to you, Arise [egeire]” (Mark 5:41). The girl came back from the dead.
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To be in Sheol is to be dead, in a place of corruption. Same words as used for Jonah! Let’s continue with the text before coming to any firm conclusion; When my soul fainted within me, I remembered YEHOVAH; and my prayer came to you, into your holy temple. And YEHOVAH spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah up onto the dry ground. Now the word of YEHOVAH came to Jonah the second time, saying, ‘Arise, [anasteemi in the Greek but cumi in the Hebrew] go to Nineveh, that great city and proclaim to it the proclamation I am going to tell you. So Jonah arose [anestee] … (Jonah 2:7, 10 - 3:1-3).
Did you also notice that Jonah says, “My soul [psyche in the LXX but nephesh in the Hebrew] fainted [ekleipein]? This is another classic Hebrew way for saying Jonah died. His very life was gone.
JONAH WAS RESURRECTED TO LIFE AGAIN
But God had other plans. All was not hopeless and lost. His first word to Jonah from the depth of Sheol is the same Semitic word that Jesus uses when he raised Jairus’ daughter from the dead - Arise! Jesus’ word to the dead girl is, ‘Talitha cumi” which is to say, “Little girl, I say to you arise!” Or as it appears in our Greek text, “Talitha koum, which being interpreted is, Girl, I say to you, Arise [egeire]” (Mark 5:41). The girl came back from the dead.
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Brant Pitre is the first one I have read who confirms my own thinking on this interpretation, but I am sure there must be others out there who also see that the impression from the movies and children Bibles is not what the text says!
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Just so, when God commands Jonah to “Arise!” I think we are seeing a resurrection of the prophet from the dead. We note that the very same word is used of Jesus’ own resurrection. Which is to say, when that great fish vomited Jonah up onto the dry land, it vomited up a corpse awaiting God’s command to live again! God resurrected the dead body of Jonah from the beach with the command, “Jonah, arise [from the dead”]! And in typical NT language, Jonah “stood up on his feet from the dead”, which is the very term used of Jesus’ resurrection!
It’s only now that we can truly grasp the significance of Jesus’ sign to the unbelieving world; “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign; but no sign shall be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was [dead] three days and three nights in the belly of the whale, so will the Son of Man be [dead] three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
But there’s more to Jonah’s miraculous sign of arising from the dead after three days. For First Century Jews the greater miracle in the Book of Jonah is the momentous miracle of the pagan Gentile city of Nineveh’s repentance!
In response to Jonah’s preaching that in forty days’ Nineveh will be overthrown, the people of Nineveh believed in God, and they called a fast, and put on sackcloth, and they humbled themselves before God and repented of their wickedness (Jonah 3:4ff). This was a universal response from the king all the way down the line to the least servant. It was also a genuine heart-response for the king of Nineveh commanded all the people to call on God earnestly that each may turn from his wicked way and from violence …
We cannot overestimate the impact this miracle had on a Jew reading the Book of Jonah. Remember what it did to the prophet Jonah himself! Remember, Nineveh was the capital city of the Assyrian Empire - Israel’s fierce and implacable enemy (e.g., see 2 Kings 15-17)! As Pitre remarks:
Once the identity of the Ninevites is clear, it becomes apparent that the real miracle in the book of Jonah is the repentance - one might even say the “conversion” of the Gentiles.
Now we can begin to see why Jesus loved the story of Jonah’s death and resurrection so much.
When the scribes and Pharisees demanded a sign to prove Jesus’ messianic credentials, Jesus in effect tells them that after his own death and resurrection, the rest of the great sign of Jonah will be the miraculous repentance of the pagan Gentiles! Both aspects belong to the sign of the prophet Jonah.
The sign of the Son of Man will be that after his own resurrection from the dead on the third day, the Gentiles will repent and barge down the door into his kingdom! Again, as Pitre remarks:
According to Jesus, it is not just his resurrection from the dead that will be a reason for believing in him. It is also the inexplicable conversion of the pagan nations of the world, the Gentiles. As Jesus says: the pagans “repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, someone greater than Jonah is here“ (Matthew 12:41; Luke 11:32). In Jonah’s case, only one Gentile city repents, and that only for a time. In Jesus’ case, countless Gentile nations, cities, even empires would go on to repent, cast away their idols, and turn to the God of Israel.
Most of us, I feel sure, do not appreciate the powerful impact this complementary aspect of Jesus’ sign communicated to the Roman world in the first few centuries. For whenever the early Christian apologists argued with their pagan contemporaries about the truthfulness of their claims for the Messiah Jesus, they regularly pointed to how the pagan world around them was turning from its idols and various gods and goddesses to the God of Israel - the God of the Jews!!
For instance, consider these words of the Fourth-Century Christian apologist Eusebius of Caesarea:
Behold how today, yes, in our times, our eyes see not only Egyptians, but every race of men who used to be idolaters … released from the errors of polytheism and the demons and calling on the God of the prophets! … Yes, in our own time the knowledge of the omnipotent God shines forth and sets a seal of certainty on the forecasts of the prophets. You see this going on, you no longer only expect to hear of it, and if you ask the moment when the change began, for all your inquiry you will receive no other answer but the moment of the appearance of the Saviour …
And who would not be struck by that extraordinary change - that men who for ages have paid divine honour to wood and stone and demons, wild beasts that feed on human flesh, poisonous reptiles, animals of every kinds, repulsive monsters, fire and earth, and the lifeless elements of the universe should after our Saviour’s coming pray to the Most High God, Creator of Heaven and earth, the actual Lord of the prophets, and the God of Abraham and his forefathers? 5
Eusebius’ sentiments could be reproduced from a long list of the early Church apologists. But let’s not miss the impact. For the early Church it was not only the empty tomb that verified Jesus’ sign of Jonah the prophet before the unbelieving world. To them, just as grand a miracle was the fact that the Gentiles had in huge numbers begun to believe and repent at the preaching of the Gospel of Jesus the Messiah.
The sign of the prophet Jonah which Jesus loved and applied to himself, is still here 2,000 years on. God is still gathering out from among the nations a mighty redeemed host of people unto Himself through Jesus Christ our Lord. Jesus the Son of Man saw himself, the Messiah, in these OT events and predictions.
Because I have borrowed so heavily from the writings of Brant Pitre, it is appropriate that I conclude with his own summation; Indeed, how does one explain the universality of the Church? I guess you could argue that it was a coincidence. I guess you could claim that the many passages in the Old Testament prophesying that one day the pagan nations of the world would turn and worship the God of Abraham just happened to take place after the death and resurrection of Jesus (see Isaiah 2:1-3; 25:6-8; 66:18-21; Jeremiah 3:15-18; Micah 4:1-2; Zachariah 8:20-23).
I guess you could also claim that these mass conversions among the pagans just happened to coincide with the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth, who just happened to live and die at the very time that the book of Daniel said the Messiah would come. And I guess you could believe that after Jesus was crucified, the tomb just happened to be inexplicably empty and hundreds of disciples of Jesus began claiming to have seen him alive again in his body. I guess you could claim all this.
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4 Ibid, p 189, original emphasis
5 Eusebius of Caesarea, The Proof of the Gospel, 1.6.20-21 as quoted by Brant Pitre, Ibid, p. 190
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I, for one, prefer the simpler explanation. Jesus of Nazareth was right. The Son of Man was crucified. The Son of Man was buried. The Son of Man was raised the third day. The tomb was empty. It still is. And the Gentiles turn to the God of Israel in droves. Because someone greater than Jonah is here. 6
No wonder Jesus saw himself in the Old Testament through the prophet Jonah!
While reading “Where is the Messiah in the Old Testament?” a question occurred to a thoughtful reader:
Do I Peter 1:11 suggest that the Messiah was previously alive and witnessing to the O.T., prophets of Israel before he was born as man? Good question! Let’s read the relevant verses:
As to this salvation, the prophets who prophesied of the grace that would come to you made careful search and inquiry, seeking to know what person or time the Spirit of the Messiah within them was indicating as he predicted the suffering of the Messiah and the glories to follow.
It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves, but you, in these things which now have been announced to you through those who preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven - things into which angels long to look. (I Peter 1:10-12 NASB translation).
Certainly, many do see here the suggestion that the Spirit of the Messiah is a reference to a pre-existing the Messiah in the Old Testament. After all, as translated here by the NASB and some other modern versions, He predicted his own sufferings!
Is it not therefore reasonable to believe it was the Messiah himself who prophesied through the prophets concerning his own future incarnation? Whether he was in Spirit-form as the Second Person in the ‘Triune Godhead’ or as ‘the Angel of the LORD - YEHOVAH’ many sincerely believe our Lord Jesus the Messiah prophesied about his own forthcoming incarnation.
In some modern translations, other verses appear to support this idea of the personal pre-existence of Jesus the Messiah in the O.T. Instead of reading that, “the Lord” did this or that, they say “Jesus” did this or that. For example, Now I desire to remind you, though you know all things once for all, that Jesus, after saving a people out of the land of Egypt, subsequently destroyed those who did not believe (Jude 1:5). Nor let us tempt Jesus, as some of them did [in the wilderness] and were destroyed by the serpents (I Corinthians 10:9).
By catapulting him back through the proverbial Time Machine, these recent translations want to give us the impression that Jesus was personally walking around and talking to men in the O.T. Thankfully most translations admit the textual evidence for altering “the Lord” to “Jesus” is weak indeed, so they keep this suggestion out of the main body of the text - but they do include it in their marginal footnotes just to flag this novel idea.
What is particularly puzzling about these corrupted verses is the fact that even trinitarians do not believe that Jesus existed until his conception in Mary! We must give these folks who say it was Jesus who was personally there with Israel in the wilderness-wanderings full marks for zeal in their cause, even if we must give them an ‘F’ for their theology! Unfortunately, though, once a tradition has been set, the tail of the paradigm will wag the dog!
But our question remains: Since Jesus did not personally exist in the O.T., did the Messiah pre-exist in the Spirit?
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Just so, when God commands Jonah to “Arise!” I think we are seeing a resurrection of the prophet from the dead. We note that the very same word is used of Jesus’ own resurrection. Which is to say, when that great fish vomited Jonah up onto the dry land, it vomited up a corpse awaiting God’s command to live again! God resurrected the dead body of Jonah from the beach with the command, “Jonah, arise [from the dead”]! And in typical NT language, Jonah “stood up on his feet from the dead”, which is the very term used of Jesus’ resurrection!
It’s only now that we can truly grasp the significance of Jesus’ sign to the unbelieving world; “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign; but no sign shall be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was [dead] three days and three nights in the belly of the whale, so will the Son of Man be [dead] three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE!
In response to Jonah’s preaching that in forty days’ Nineveh will be overthrown, the people of Nineveh believed in God, and they called a fast, and put on sackcloth, and they humbled themselves before God and repented of their wickedness (Jonah 3:4ff). This was a universal response from the king all the way down the line to the least servant. It was also a genuine heart-response for the king of Nineveh commanded all the people to call on God earnestly that each may turn from his wicked way and from violence …
We cannot overestimate the impact this miracle had on a Jew reading the Book of Jonah. Remember what it did to the prophet Jonah himself! Remember, Nineveh was the capital city of the Assyrian Empire - Israel’s fierce and implacable enemy (e.g., see 2 Kings 15-17)! As Pitre remarks:
Once the identity of the Ninevites is clear, it becomes apparent that the real miracle in the book of Jonah is the repentance - one might even say the “conversion” of the Gentiles.
THE SIGN OF JONAH WAS IN TWO PARTS
Now we can begin to see why Jesus loved the story of Jonah’s death and resurrection so much.
When the scribes and Pharisees demanded a sign to prove Jesus’ messianic credentials, Jesus in effect tells them that after his own death and resurrection, the rest of the great sign of Jonah will be the miraculous repentance of the pagan Gentiles! Both aspects belong to the sign of the prophet Jonah.
The sign of the Son of Man will be that after his own resurrection from the dead on the third day, the Gentiles will repent and barge down the door into his kingdom! Again, as Pitre remarks:
According to Jesus, it is not just his resurrection from the dead that will be a reason for believing in him. It is also the inexplicable conversion of the pagan nations of the world, the Gentiles. As Jesus says: the pagans “repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, someone greater than Jonah is here“ (Matthew 12:41; Luke 11:32). In Jonah’s case, only one Gentile city repents, and that only for a time. In Jesus’ case, countless Gentile nations, cities, even empires would go on to repent, cast away their idols, and turn to the God of Israel.
Most of us, I feel sure, do not appreciate the powerful impact this complementary aspect of Jesus’ sign communicated to the Roman world in the first few centuries. For whenever the early Christian apologists argued with their pagan contemporaries about the truthfulness of their claims for the Messiah Jesus, they regularly pointed to how the pagan world around them was turning from its idols and various gods and goddesses to the God of Israel - the God of the Jews!!
For instance, consider these words of the Fourth-Century Christian apologist Eusebius of Caesarea:
Behold how today, yes, in our times, our eyes see not only Egyptians, but every race of men who used to be idolaters … released from the errors of polytheism and the demons and calling on the God of the prophets! … Yes, in our own time the knowledge of the omnipotent God shines forth and sets a seal of certainty on the forecasts of the prophets. You see this going on, you no longer only expect to hear of it, and if you ask the moment when the change began, for all your inquiry you will receive no other answer but the moment of the appearance of the Saviour …
And who would not be struck by that extraordinary change - that men who for ages have paid divine honour to wood and stone and demons, wild beasts that feed on human flesh, poisonous reptiles, animals of every kinds, repulsive monsters, fire and earth, and the lifeless elements of the universe should after our Saviour’s coming pray to the Most High God, Creator of Heaven and earth, the actual Lord of the prophets, and the God of Abraham and his forefathers? 5
Eusebius’ sentiments could be reproduced from a long list of the early Church apologists. But let’s not miss the impact. For the early Church it was not only the empty tomb that verified Jesus’ sign of Jonah the prophet before the unbelieving world. To them, just as grand a miracle was the fact that the Gentiles had in huge numbers begun to believe and repent at the preaching of the Gospel of Jesus the Messiah.
The sign of the prophet Jonah which Jesus loved and applied to himself, is still here 2,000 years on. God is still gathering out from among the nations a mighty redeemed host of people unto Himself through Jesus Christ our Lord. Jesus the Son of Man saw himself, the Messiah, in these OT events and predictions.
Because I have borrowed so heavily from the writings of Brant Pitre, it is appropriate that I conclude with his own summation; Indeed, how does one explain the universality of the Church? I guess you could argue that it was a coincidence. I guess you could claim that the many passages in the Old Testament prophesying that one day the pagan nations of the world would turn and worship the God of Abraham just happened to take place after the death and resurrection of Jesus (see Isaiah 2:1-3; 25:6-8; 66:18-21; Jeremiah 3:15-18; Micah 4:1-2; Zachariah 8:20-23).
I guess you could also claim that these mass conversions among the pagans just happened to coincide with the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth, who just happened to live and die at the very time that the book of Daniel said the Messiah would come. And I guess you could believe that after Jesus was crucified, the tomb just happened to be inexplicably empty and hundreds of disciples of Jesus began claiming to have seen him alive again in his body. I guess you could claim all this.
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4 Ibid, p 189, original emphasis
5 Eusebius of Caesarea, The Proof of the Gospel, 1.6.20-21 as quoted by Brant Pitre, Ibid, p. 190
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I, for one, prefer the simpler explanation. Jesus of Nazareth was right. The Son of Man was crucified. The Son of Man was buried. The Son of Man was raised the third day. The tomb was empty. It still is. And the Gentiles turn to the God of Israel in droves. Because someone greater than Jonah is here. 6
No wonder Jesus saw himself in the Old Testament through the prophet Jonah!
5
While reading “Where is the Messiah in the Old Testament?” a question occurred to a thoughtful reader:
Do I Peter 1:11 suggest that the Messiah was previously alive and witnessing to the O.T., prophets of Israel before he was born as man? Good question! Let’s read the relevant verses:
As to this salvation, the prophets who prophesied of the grace that would come to you made careful search and inquiry, seeking to know what person or time the Spirit of the Messiah within them was indicating as he predicted the suffering of the Messiah and the glories to follow.
It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves, but you, in these things which now have been announced to you through those who preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven - things into which angels long to look. (I Peter 1:10-12 NASB translation).
Certainly, many do see here the suggestion that the Spirit of the Messiah is a reference to a pre-existing the Messiah in the Old Testament. After all, as translated here by the NASB and some other modern versions, He predicted his own sufferings!
Is it not therefore reasonable to believe it was the Messiah himself who prophesied through the prophets concerning his own future incarnation? Whether he was in Spirit-form as the Second Person in the ‘Triune Godhead’ or as ‘the Angel of the LORD - YEHOVAH’ many sincerely believe our Lord Jesus the Messiah prophesied about his own forthcoming incarnation.
In some modern translations, other verses appear to support this idea of the personal pre-existence of Jesus the Messiah in the O.T. Instead of reading that, “the Lord” did this or that, they say “Jesus” did this or that. For example, Now I desire to remind you, though you know all things once for all, that Jesus, after saving a people out of the land of Egypt, subsequently destroyed those who did not believe (Jude 1:5). Nor let us tempt Jesus, as some of them did [in the wilderness] and were destroyed by the serpents (I Corinthians 10:9).
By catapulting him back through the proverbial Time Machine, these recent translations want to give us the impression that Jesus was personally walking around and talking to men in the O.T. Thankfully most translations admit the textual evidence for altering “the Lord” to “Jesus” is weak indeed, so they keep this suggestion out of the main body of the text - but they do include it in their marginal footnotes just to flag this novel idea.
What is particularly puzzling about these corrupted verses is the fact that even trinitarians do not believe that Jesus existed until his conception in Mary! We must give these folks who say it was Jesus who was personally there with Israel in the wilderness-wanderings full marks for zeal in their cause, even if we must give them an ‘F’ for their theology! Unfortunately, though, once a tradition has been set, the tail of the paradigm will wag the dog!
But our question remains: Since Jesus did not personally exist in the O.T., did the Messiah pre-exist in the Spirit?
You know, I often think we could simplify things by being far more Biblically literate simply by recognizing the truth that “Christ” is not a name, but a title, and an office. So much confusion would be eliminated by calling Jesus the Messiah, which is the Hebrew equivalent of the Greek word ‘Christ’. Both ‘Messiah’ and ‘Christ’ mean ‘anointed one’ … i.e., a man commissioned, sealed, and appointed by God. In the Bible, the Eternal God is never anointed because He does the anointing!
Before examining what 1 Peter 1:11 says, let’s first ask where this idea that Jesus pre-existed his own human birth in some kind of Spirit-form came from. Did it come from the Bible, or did it originate some time after the close of the N.T., canon?
The prominent Lutheran church historian Alfred Harnack (1851-1930) traced the early influence of Greek philosophy on church history and doctrine. Harnack notes that it was a statement in The Second Epistle of Clement that formalised post-apostolic Christianity’s doctrine that Jesus existed first as Spirit, before he was incarnated.
Second Clement, by the way, is considered by the Coptic Orthodox Church to this very day to be part of their canon of Scripture. The ‘epistle’ is actually a very early sermon by an unknown author recorded between 95 A.D. - 140 A.D. So, it’s very early. In fact, outside of the NT itself Second Clement is probably the earliest surviving sermon yet found!
The quote relevant to our topic from 2 Clement reads: “Jesus, who was first Spirit became flesh for us.” (Better read that again as it’s quite seminal to our discussion!) Putting it the other way round, it states that before Jesus became man, he existed in the “Spirit” realm.
Harnack alleges that, On this text the whole of orthodoxy is based. The historical Jesus was replaced by a fictional Christ.
Thus, Harnack is in no doubt that, the idea that Christ existed first as ‘Spirit’ before his so-called ‘incarnation in human flesh’, may be historically traced to this extra-biblical text. …
That said, I am quite aware that today’s “orthodoxy” (a.k.a. trinitarianism) appeals to the Bible itself for their dogma of a personal pre-existence of the Son of God. One of the classic verses appealed to is:
1 CORINTHIANS 15:47: The first man is from the earth, earthy; the second man is from heaven (NASB).
If you are a lover of the King James Version (KJV), this verse seems to read even more convincingly that the Lord Jesus pre-existed Adam:
The first man is of the earth, earthy: The second man is the Lord from heaven.
This verse, in isolation, might seem to suggest that Jesus was the Lord from heaven prior to his becoming human. However, a little attention to the context should dispel this idea quickly.
First Corinthians 15 is all about the resurrection of Jesus the Messiah and its implications for the world. The whole chapter is a message about post-resurrection perspectives. James D.G. Dunn notes that those who identify the second man from heaven as the pre-existing Lord Jesus, fail to account for this all-pervading resurrection-context. Dunn rightly states that this verse must be read in its post-Easter setting (though I prefer not to use that word) and is …
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Note: For the interested reader the various scribal corruptions of this text make a fascinating study. Bart Ehrman’s The Orthodox Corruption of Scripture: The Effect of Early Christological Controversies on the Text of the New Testament is a great place to start. I Corinthians 15:47 has been tampered with extensively to say that the Messiah is not the second Adam, but the “Lord-man”, “the spiritual man”, “the heavenly man”, etc., thus giving the impression that Jesus is far more than a second creation of God that surpasses the first!
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Focus on the resurrection built on a sequence of parallel contrasts; physical/spiritual, earthly/heavenly, first man/second man; where it is clear enough that the second half of each contrast refers to the resurrection state. This includes the description of the second man as “from heaven,” for it is precisely his heavenly image which provides the pattern for the resurrection state of others (I Corinthians 15: 49).
Paul has already made this clear earlier in the same chapter: the Messiah in his resurrection is the “first fruits of those who have fallen asleep”; as risen he is the archetype of resurrected humanity (1 Corinthians 15: 2-23). And in the immediate context he has been at some pains (for whatever reason) to insist that the spiritual does not precede the physical (1 Corinthians15:46). Physical first, Spiritual second!
Hence in relation to (first) Adam, the Messiah is last Adam (1 Corinthians 15:45). It would throw his argument into complete confusion if he was understood to mean that “the second man from heaven” was the pre-existent one, and therefore actually first, before Adam.
Dunn is on solid exegetical ground here. Note what the apostle wrote in the verses surrounding:
And so, it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a life giving spirit. However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural; then the spiritual (1 Corinthians 15:45-46).
This is a clear statement that it is only after his resurrection that Jesus is said to have become a quickening spirit (KJV), or if you prefer the modern translations, a life-giving spirit. But do not miss the salient point; The physical man Adam preceded the now resurrected Messiah! Adam existed before Jesus the Messiah!
According to the apostle, the Messiah did not personally precede Adam in time. Jesus is the Second Adam; the Second Man [specially created by the Spirit of God in the womb of Mary]. Adam is the original! The Messiah is the antitype, the one who comes afterwards --- second! Traditional trinitarian doctrine reverses this Scriptural order. Both Harnack and Dunn only emphasize the obvious.
The description “the man from heaven” cannot be a reference to the apostles’s supposed belief in Jesus as the pre-existent Son of God. As already mentioned, even believers in the Trinity know Jesus did not exist prior to his conception in Mary!
“The man from heaven” is a reference to the risen Lord who is now ascended into heaven. He is now the first-ever immortalised man. Jesus the Messiah became “the Life-giving Spirit” after his resurrection.
The whole of First Corinthians chapter 15 concerns the resurrected the Messiah who is now in heaven waiting to bring immortality and glory to his disciples who are new creations in him, when God consummates this age. This eschatological climax of the chapter decides who the man from heaven is; our risen Lord, and it has nothing to do with pre-existence or with incarnation from Spirit into flesh!
And just by the way, this confirms Alfred Harnack’s assertion that Second Clement’s “Jesus, who was first Spirit became flesh for us”, really did form the basis for the whole of orthodoxy … which displaced the historical Jesus and replaced him with a fictional Christ.
Harnack’s allegation is that, by reversing the order of the appearance between Adam and Christ, “Orthodoxy” (i.e. Trinitarianism) has manufactured a make-believe Jesus!? And who wants to believe in fairy tales? We are now on the way to understanding Peter’s expression, the Spirit of Christ. 3
Scripture is replete with the description, “the Spirit of …” The function of the Spirit is then variously 3 supplied. Let’s look at a few easy examples as listed here:
The Spirit that God places upon people takes on different names as it refers to different functions. This can be abundantly proven. Nevertheless, the spirit is the same. God always gives His spirit, and then it is named as it functions.
When it is associated with wisdom, it is called the “spirit of wisdom” (Exodus 28:3; Deuteronomy 334:9; Ephesians 1:17). When it is associated with grace, it is called the “spirit of grace” (Zechariah 12:10; Hebrews 10:29). When it is related to glory, it is called the “spirit of glory” (I Peter 4:14). It is called the “spirit of adoption” when it is associated with our everlasting life (Romans 8:15, which is translated as “spirit of sonship’ in some versions). It is called the “spirit of truth” when it is associated with the truth we learn by revelation (John 14:17; 16:13).
When it came with the same power as it brought to Elijah, it was called “the spirit of Elijah” (2 Kings 2:15). These are not different spirits. All the names refer to the one gift of holy spirit that God gives. Ephesians 4:4 states clearly that there is “one spirit”, and that spirit is God’s gift of holy spirit given to some people in the Old Testament and to all believers today. 4
This background now brings us to our text from I Peter 1:11 …
When Peter mentions that “the spirit of the Messiah” was upon prophets as they “predicted the sufferings of the Messiah and the glory that would follow,” it is easy to see that the spirit is called the “spirit of the Messiah” because it is associated with the Messiah and foretold of the Messiah, not because the Messiah was alive during the Old Testament times. 5
Does the expression “the Spirit of the Messiah” mean “the Spirit who is the Messiah”? Or does it mean “the Spirit about (concerning) the Messiah? 6
A THE SPIRIT WHO IS THE MESSIAH
Here is a significant fact. The expression “the Spirit of the Messiah” does not occur anywhere in the O.T. Over and over again in the O.T., we read of “the Spirit of the LORD - YEHOVAH” or “the Spirit of God” or “the holy Spirit”, but never “the Spirit of the Messiah”. Nowhere in the O.T., is the Spirit of God said to be the Spirit who is Christ.
But of course, this fact alone does not necessarily mean that Peter’s expression “the Spirit of the Messiah” cannot mean “the Spirit Who is Christ”. Let’s keep an open mind here for a moment.
B. THE SPIRIT CONCERNING THE MESSIAH
Second critical fact: The phrase the Spirit of the Messiah (and its parallel terms such as the one-off mention of the Spirit of Jesus [Acts 16:7] also does not occur in the N.T., until after the resurrection - ascension - glorification of Jesus the Messiah. James D.G.Dunn makes the point saliently: Such identification as there is in the N.T., between Christ and the Spirit begins with Jesus’ resurrection, [and] stems from Jesus’ exaltation.
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Note: I have chosen to capitalise Spirit to indicate that it is God who gives His Spirit to enable these functions He supplies. There is no translation necessity to do this, and it would be equally acceptable to use the small ‘s’.
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This fact, often forgotten, or just plain overlooked, is critical to a correct interpretation of the Spirit of the Messiah. You won’t and don’t read of the Spirit of the Messiah until Jesus comes out of the tomb.
We note that Peter supplies some more information here. He mentions how, after they gave their prophecies about the coming sufferings of the Messiah and the glories to follow, that they still had to make enquiry. The prophets weren’t given the full picture. They could look into the future only through the proverbial dark glass. We should therefore understand the phrase (“the Spirit of the Messiah”) to mean the Spirit concerning the Messiah who would follow their predictions. This is an easy statement indicating that the Spirit of God operating in the prophetic forecasts predicted the Messiah’s future suffering and glory.
Anthony Buzzard expresses the idea brilliantly:
The Messianic spirit is the spirit of everything to do with God’s Messianic program in His Son.
In fact, Peter tells us this is exactly what he means in a parallel passage in the Book of Acts. Speaking to his countrymen about their crime of crucifying their Messiah, Peter announces that all these events God announced beforehand by the mouth of all the prophets, that His anointed one Christ [Messiah] should suffer, [and] He has thus fulfilled (Acts 3:18).
In other words, the gospel foreshadowed (in part/s) through the prophets in the OT is now being preached in its fullness throughout the world by the holy Spirit sent from heaven where the Messiah now sits at the right hand of God. Which is to say, all of heaven’s delegated authority in the Messiah is behind this Gospel message which was foretold beforehand by prophetic inspiration.
Jesus said that after he left the apostles and ascended to where they could no longer see him physically, he would come to be with them in a new form of ministry and comfort …“I am going … the Spirit of Truth will be in you …I will come to you” (John 14:4,17,18).
So, let’s not forget Dunn’s salient observation again, such identification as there is in the N.T., between the Messiah and the Spirit begins with Jesus’ resurrection, [and] stems from Jesus’ exaltation. In simple terms, Peter’s expression “the Spirit of the Messiah” is a description of the now-risen Messiah fulfilling all that the prophets looked forward to after his suffering, and not a reference to a supposed pre-existent Spirit-form before incarnation.
This unfortunately brings us to more translator bias in the text. Without getting bogged down in technicalities, we must clear up a couple of points of grammar. Many English translations follow the NASB version that I quoted at the beginning. They say “the Spirit of the Messiah” is a He (who predicted the suffering of the Messiah and the glories to follow). But I can assure you that the Greek text does not use the masculine third person pronoun by referring to “the Spirit of the Messiah” as “He”.
Here is one place where the KJV is correct when it reads how the prophets enquired and searched diligently … what, or what manner of time the Spirit of the Messiah which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of the Messiah…
The Spirit of the Messiah is the prophetic spirit which expressed itself about the future coming of the suffering and glorified Messiah. It ought to be obvious that the subject matter, the context of First Peter 1:11 is not about the Messiah’s putative pre-existence before incarnation. No. It’s rather about inspiration, that is, the prophetic Spirit in which the prophets announced the future coming of Christ. Peter’s subject is inspiration and not incarnation.
The standard method the N.T., writers (i.e. the apostles of the Messiah) employed when interpreting their Hebrew Scriptures was to see Jesus the Messiah foreshadowed in all the marvellous O.T., types, shadows, and allegories, which all anticipated Messiah’s arrival. Not for one moment did they entertain the thought that their Messiah existed in the Spirit realm before his becoming human flesh. If I may quote the esteemed James Dunn again:
In short, despite its ancient lineage in the patristic period (Dunn means the so-called Church Fathers from the Second to Fifth Centuries A.D.,) this thesis does not in fact provide us a way into the thought of the N.T., writers or into their Christology. 9
Which being interpreted means, any theology that sees a personally pre-existing Messiah in the O.T., needs a new pair of exegetical glasses! Or to be kinder, at least they must learn to read their Bible in its original context and setting - otherwise, according to Dunn, we go down a blind alley.
I love how Peter describes the earnest enquiry those prophets made as they tried to figure out what God was indicating to them through their visions, dreams, inner impressions, and writings concerning the coming Messiah. They were left scratching their heads about what it could all mean. They could only look into the future through the glass dimly as we still do concern God’s promised future for the resurrected saints at the Parousia!
Peter says the angels long to investigate these inspirational Gospel matters too. The verb used conveys the strong idea of coveting or lusting after!
It’s the same word used in John 20:5,11 where Peter and John are in a foot race to get to the empty tomb. John outruns Peter. John stops at the door of the tomb, and stooping and looking in, sees the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in.
But when puffing, panting Peter gets to the tomb he barged right on in and entered the tomb, and he beheld the linen wrappings lying there. Now, the fascinating point is that the word used of John stooping and looking in at the empty tomb, is the same word Peter uses in I Peter 1:12 of the angels who long to investigate the full significance of the Messianic Gospel now being preached to us.
Which gets me to thinking; Since the angels are bending over with intense interest and staring at the cosmic implications of the prophetic events concerning our Messiah, and since the prophets also diligently enquired about these things, how much more should we - with all the benefits of hindsight - marvel at what God has done in His Son for our everlasting joy. And all so brilliantly outlined in the Old Testament Scriptures!
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Note: The Greek verb epithumousin is indicative, present active, 3 plurals. The angels are still inquisitively looking into the full glory and implications of God’s predetermined plan as revealed in the Messiah’s Gospel!
FIRST, A HISTORY LESSON…
Before examining what 1 Peter 1:11 says, let’s first ask where this idea that Jesus pre-existed his own human birth in some kind of Spirit-form came from. Did it come from the Bible, or did it originate some time after the close of the N.T., canon?
The prominent Lutheran church historian Alfred Harnack (1851-1930) traced the early influence of Greek philosophy on church history and doctrine. Harnack notes that it was a statement in The Second Epistle of Clement that formalised post-apostolic Christianity’s doctrine that Jesus existed first as Spirit, before he was incarnated.
Second Clement, by the way, is considered by the Coptic Orthodox Church to this very day to be part of their canon of Scripture. The ‘epistle’ is actually a very early sermon by an unknown author recorded between 95 A.D. - 140 A.D. So, it’s very early. In fact, outside of the NT itself Second Clement is probably the earliest surviving sermon yet found!
The quote relevant to our topic from 2 Clement reads: “Jesus, who was first Spirit became flesh for us.” (Better read that again as it’s quite seminal to our discussion!) Putting it the other way round, it states that before Jesus became man, he existed in the “Spirit” realm.
Harnack alleges that, On this text the whole of orthodoxy is based. The historical Jesus was replaced by a fictional Christ.
Thus, Harnack is in no doubt that, the idea that Christ existed first as ‘Spirit’ before his so-called ‘incarnation in human flesh’, may be historically traced to this extra-biblical text. …
AND NOW A BIBLE LESSON!
That said, I am quite aware that today’s “orthodoxy” (a.k.a. trinitarianism) appeals to the Bible itself for their dogma of a personal pre-existence of the Son of God. One of the classic verses appealed to is:
1 CORINTHIANS 15:47: The first man is from the earth, earthy; the second man is from heaven (NASB).
If you are a lover of the King James Version (KJV), this verse seems to read even more convincingly that the Lord Jesus pre-existed Adam:
The first man is of the earth, earthy: The second man is the Lord from heaven.
This verse, in isolation, might seem to suggest that Jesus was the Lord from heaven prior to his becoming human. However, a little attention to the context should dispel this idea quickly.
First Corinthians 15 is all about the resurrection of Jesus the Messiah and its implications for the world. The whole chapter is a message about post-resurrection perspectives. James D.G. Dunn notes that those who identify the second man from heaven as the pre-existing Lord Jesus, fail to account for this all-pervading resurrection-context. Dunn rightly states that this verse must be read in its post-Easter setting (though I prefer not to use that word) and is …
_________________________________________________________
Note: For the interested reader the various scribal corruptions of this text make a fascinating study. Bart Ehrman’s The Orthodox Corruption of Scripture: The Effect of Early Christological Controversies on the Text of the New Testament is a great place to start. I Corinthians 15:47 has been tampered with extensively to say that the Messiah is not the second Adam, but the “Lord-man”, “the spiritual man”, “the heavenly man”, etc., thus giving the impression that Jesus is far more than a second creation of God that surpasses the first!
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Focus on the resurrection built on a sequence of parallel contrasts; physical/spiritual, earthly/heavenly, first man/second man; where it is clear enough that the second half of each contrast refers to the resurrection state. This includes the description of the second man as “from heaven,” for it is precisely his heavenly image which provides the pattern for the resurrection state of others (I Corinthians 15: 49).
Paul has already made this clear earlier in the same chapter: the Messiah in his resurrection is the “first fruits of those who have fallen asleep”; as risen he is the archetype of resurrected humanity (1 Corinthians 15: 2-23). And in the immediate context he has been at some pains (for whatever reason) to insist that the spiritual does not precede the physical (1 Corinthians15:46). Physical first, Spiritual second!
Hence in relation to (first) Adam, the Messiah is last Adam (1 Corinthians 15:45). It would throw his argument into complete confusion if he was understood to mean that “the second man from heaven” was the pre-existent one, and therefore actually first, before Adam.
Dunn is on solid exegetical ground here. Note what the apostle wrote in the verses surrounding:
And so, it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a life giving spirit. However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural; then the spiritual (1 Corinthians 15:45-46).
This is a clear statement that it is only after his resurrection that Jesus is said to have become a quickening spirit (KJV), or if you prefer the modern translations, a life-giving spirit. But do not miss the salient point; The physical man Adam preceded the now resurrected Messiah! Adam existed before Jesus the Messiah!
According to the apostle, the Messiah did not personally precede Adam in time. Jesus is the Second Adam; the Second Man [specially created by the Spirit of God in the womb of Mary]. Adam is the original! The Messiah is the antitype, the one who comes afterwards --- second! Traditional trinitarian doctrine reverses this Scriptural order. Both Harnack and Dunn only emphasize the obvious.
The description “the man from heaven” cannot be a reference to the apostles’s supposed belief in Jesus as the pre-existent Son of God. As already mentioned, even believers in the Trinity know Jesus did not exist prior to his conception in Mary!
“The man from heaven” is a reference to the risen Lord who is now ascended into heaven. He is now the first-ever immortalised man. Jesus the Messiah became “the Life-giving Spirit” after his resurrection.
The whole of First Corinthians chapter 15 concerns the resurrected the Messiah who is now in heaven waiting to bring immortality and glory to his disciples who are new creations in him, when God consummates this age. This eschatological climax of the chapter decides who the man from heaven is; our risen Lord, and it has nothing to do with pre-existence or with incarnation from Spirit into flesh!
And just by the way, this confirms Alfred Harnack’s assertion that Second Clement’s “Jesus, who was first Spirit became flesh for us”, really did form the basis for the whole of orthodoxy … which displaced the historical Jesus and replaced him with a fictional Christ.
Harnack’s allegation is that, by reversing the order of the appearance between Adam and Christ, “Orthodoxy” (i.e. Trinitarianism) has manufactured a make-believe Jesus!? And who wants to believe in fairy tales? We are now on the way to understanding Peter’s expression, the Spirit of Christ. 3
SOME BASICS ABOUT ‘THE SPIRIT’
Scripture is replete with the description, “the Spirit of …” The function of the Spirit is then variously 3 supplied. Let’s look at a few easy examples as listed here:
The Spirit that God places upon people takes on different names as it refers to different functions. This can be abundantly proven. Nevertheless, the spirit is the same. God always gives His spirit, and then it is named as it functions.
When it is associated with wisdom, it is called the “spirit of wisdom” (Exodus 28:3; Deuteronomy 334:9; Ephesians 1:17). When it is associated with grace, it is called the “spirit of grace” (Zechariah 12:10; Hebrews 10:29). When it is related to glory, it is called the “spirit of glory” (I Peter 4:14). It is called the “spirit of adoption” when it is associated with our everlasting life (Romans 8:15, which is translated as “spirit of sonship’ in some versions). It is called the “spirit of truth” when it is associated with the truth we learn by revelation (John 14:17; 16:13).
When it came with the same power as it brought to Elijah, it was called “the spirit of Elijah” (2 Kings 2:15). These are not different spirits. All the names refer to the one gift of holy spirit that God gives. Ephesians 4:4 states clearly that there is “one spirit”, and that spirit is God’s gift of holy spirit given to some people in the Old Testament and to all believers today. 4
This background now brings us to our text from I Peter 1:11 …
When Peter mentions that “the spirit of the Messiah” was upon prophets as they “predicted the sufferings of the Messiah and the glory that would follow,” it is easy to see that the spirit is called the “spirit of the Messiah” because it is associated with the Messiah and foretold of the Messiah, not because the Messiah was alive during the Old Testament times. 5
AND WAIT FOR IT…NOW A GRAMMAR LESSON!
Does the expression “the Spirit of the Messiah” mean “the Spirit who is the Messiah”? Or does it mean “the Spirit about (concerning) the Messiah? 6
A THE SPIRIT WHO IS THE MESSIAH
Here is a significant fact. The expression “the Spirit of the Messiah” does not occur anywhere in the O.T. Over and over again in the O.T., we read of “the Spirit of the LORD - YEHOVAH” or “the Spirit of God” or “the holy Spirit”, but never “the Spirit of the Messiah”. Nowhere in the O.T., is the Spirit of God said to be the Spirit who is Christ.
But of course, this fact alone does not necessarily mean that Peter’s expression “the Spirit of the Messiah” cannot mean “the Spirit Who is Christ”. Let’s keep an open mind here for a moment.
B. THE SPIRIT CONCERNING THE MESSIAH
Second critical fact: The phrase the Spirit of the Messiah (and its parallel terms such as the one-off mention of the Spirit of Jesus [Acts 16:7] also does not occur in the N.T., until after the resurrection - ascension - glorification of Jesus the Messiah. James D.G.Dunn makes the point saliently: Such identification as there is in the N.T., between Christ and the Spirit begins with Jesus’ resurrection, [and] stems from Jesus’ exaltation.
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Note: I have chosen to capitalise Spirit to indicate that it is God who gives His Spirit to enable these functions He supplies. There is no translation necessity to do this, and it would be equally acceptable to use the small ‘s’.
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This fact, often forgotten, or just plain overlooked, is critical to a correct interpretation of the Spirit of the Messiah. You won’t and don’t read of the Spirit of the Messiah until Jesus comes out of the tomb.
We note that Peter supplies some more information here. He mentions how, after they gave their prophecies about the coming sufferings of the Messiah and the glories to follow, that they still had to make enquiry. The prophets weren’t given the full picture. They could look into the future only through the proverbial dark glass. We should therefore understand the phrase (“the Spirit of the Messiah”) to mean the Spirit concerning the Messiah who would follow their predictions. This is an easy statement indicating that the Spirit of God operating in the prophetic forecasts predicted the Messiah’s future suffering and glory.
Anthony Buzzard expresses the idea brilliantly:
The Messianic spirit is the spirit of everything to do with God’s Messianic program in His Son.
In fact, Peter tells us this is exactly what he means in a parallel passage in the Book of Acts. Speaking to his countrymen about their crime of crucifying their Messiah, Peter announces that all these events God announced beforehand by the mouth of all the prophets, that His anointed one Christ [Messiah] should suffer, [and] He has thus fulfilled (Acts 3:18).
In other words, the gospel foreshadowed (in part/s) through the prophets in the OT is now being preached in its fullness throughout the world by the holy Spirit sent from heaven where the Messiah now sits at the right hand of God. Which is to say, all of heaven’s delegated authority in the Messiah is behind this Gospel message which was foretold beforehand by prophetic inspiration.
Jesus said that after he left the apostles and ascended to where they could no longer see him physically, he would come to be with them in a new form of ministry and comfort …“I am going … the Spirit of Truth will be in you …I will come to you” (John 14:4,17,18).
So, let’s not forget Dunn’s salient observation again, such identification as there is in the N.T., between the Messiah and the Spirit begins with Jesus’ resurrection, [and] stems from Jesus’ exaltation. In simple terms, Peter’s expression “the Spirit of the Messiah” is a description of the now-risen Messiah fulfilling all that the prophets looked forward to after his suffering, and not a reference to a supposed pre-existent Spirit-form before incarnation.
UNFORTUNATE TRANSLATION BIAS
This unfortunately brings us to more translator bias in the text. Without getting bogged down in technicalities, we must clear up a couple of points of grammar. Many English translations follow the NASB version that I quoted at the beginning. They say “the Spirit of the Messiah” is a He (who predicted the suffering of the Messiah and the glories to follow). But I can assure you that the Greek text does not use the masculine third person pronoun by referring to “the Spirit of the Messiah” as “He”.
Here is one place where the KJV is correct when it reads how the prophets enquired and searched diligently … what, or what manner of time the Spirit of the Messiah which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of the Messiah…
IT’S ABOUT INSPIRATION NOT INCARNATION!
The Spirit of the Messiah is the prophetic spirit which expressed itself about the future coming of the suffering and glorified Messiah. It ought to be obvious that the subject matter, the context of First Peter 1:11 is not about the Messiah’s putative pre-existence before incarnation. No. It’s rather about inspiration, that is, the prophetic Spirit in which the prophets announced the future coming of Christ. Peter’s subject is inspiration and not incarnation.
The standard method the N.T., writers (i.e. the apostles of the Messiah) employed when interpreting their Hebrew Scriptures was to see Jesus the Messiah foreshadowed in all the marvellous O.T., types, shadows, and allegories, which all anticipated Messiah’s arrival. Not for one moment did they entertain the thought that their Messiah existed in the Spirit realm before his becoming human flesh. If I may quote the esteemed James Dunn again:
In short, despite its ancient lineage in the patristic period (Dunn means the so-called Church Fathers from the Second to Fifth Centuries A.D.,) this thesis does not in fact provide us a way into the thought of the N.T., writers or into their Christology. 9
Which being interpreted means, any theology that sees a personally pre-existing Messiah in the O.T., needs a new pair of exegetical glasses! Or to be kinder, at least they must learn to read their Bible in its original context and setting - otherwise, according to Dunn, we go down a blind alley.
STOOPING DOWN TO GAZE IN TO LOOK UP!
I love how Peter describes the earnest enquiry those prophets made as they tried to figure out what God was indicating to them through their visions, dreams, inner impressions, and writings concerning the coming Messiah. They were left scratching their heads about what it could all mean. They could only look into the future through the glass dimly as we still do concern God’s promised future for the resurrected saints at the Parousia!
Peter says the angels long to investigate these inspirational Gospel matters too. The verb used conveys the strong idea of coveting or lusting after!
It’s the same word used in John 20:5,11 where Peter and John are in a foot race to get to the empty tomb. John outruns Peter. John stops at the door of the tomb, and stooping and looking in, sees the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in.
But when puffing, panting Peter gets to the tomb he barged right on in and entered the tomb, and he beheld the linen wrappings lying there. Now, the fascinating point is that the word used of John stooping and looking in at the empty tomb, is the same word Peter uses in I Peter 1:12 of the angels who long to investigate the full significance of the Messianic Gospel now being preached to us.
Which gets me to thinking; Since the angels are bending over with intense interest and staring at the cosmic implications of the prophetic events concerning our Messiah, and since the prophets also diligently enquired about these things, how much more should we - with all the benefits of hindsight - marvel at what God has done in His Son for our everlasting joy. And all so brilliantly outlined in the Old Testament Scriptures!
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Note: The Greek verb epithumousin is indicative, present active, 3 plurals. The angels are still inquisitively looking into the full glory and implications of God’s predetermined plan as revealed in the Messiah’s Gospel!
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Written by Greg Deuble and edited by Bruce Lyon
