THE Messiah, The prophecies and the Talmud
Foreword
The coming of the Messiah is
an interesting issue to which many prophecies are connected.
Below, we are going to
examine this area, that is, the prophecies connected with the coming of the
Messiah. The purpose is to go through especially what has been told in the
Scriptures – the Books of Moses, psalms and prophets – about the coming of the
Messiah, the point of time of His coming, His life, His origins and whether or
not these prophecies have already been fulfilled. In other words, the purpose
is to find out how these things actually came true.
However,
we will not only be restricted to the writings of the Bible, but also use old
commentaries of the rabbis (Midrash, Targum, Zohar, Talmud, etc.) as
assistance, because they are valued very much amongst Jews. What is surprising
is that from these old sources – especially from the oldest – can be found a
powerful expectation of the Messiah and a description of His supernatural
characteristics, presented in a way which very much resembles the message of
the New Testament. An example of this expectation of the Messiah is what Talmud
has said on the following lines. They indicate that prophets prophesied only
for the days of the Messiah:
"All prophets prophesied
only for the days of the Messiah" (Sanhedrin 99a. p. 670).
"The world was created only for the
Messiah." (Sanhedrin
98b. p. 667).
