Chapter 1 -

The time of the coming of the Messiah

 

 

 

 

When considering the time of the coming of the Messiah, the present-day Jews possess a view that He has not yet come. It is a common idea amongst the Jews that the Messiah has not yet been on Earth (some may also speak only about the time of the Messiah without actually believing in Him), and for that reason, they are still waiting for His first coming. What is typical of this view is the following quote of a well-known Bible expositor, rabbi Maimonides. It is a part of the current Siduur prayer book:

 

"I believe with perfect faith in the coming of the Messiah, and despite being delayed, I shall wait for Him day after day, until He arrives."

 

But what is true? Has the Messiah already come, and is there generally any deadline mentioned for His coming in the Bible, and has that time possibly already been? We will try to give answers to these questions below, and we can already state that the deadline should have expired a long time ago. This is indicated by the following points:

 

THE Prophecy of Daniel

 

First of all, it is good to pay attention to the prophecy of Daniel, which is one of the most remarkable prophecies connected with the coming time of the Messiah. Daniel received this prophecy 500–600 B.C., and it refers especially to the city of Jerusalem and its temple, but also to the Messiah. According to this prophecy, the Messiah should have appeared and also died ("shall Messiah be cut off") at the latest when Jerusalem and its temple were destroyed, because the prophecy says:

 

- (Dan 9:24-26) Seventy weeks are determined on your people and on your holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.

25  Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem to the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and three score and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times.

26  And after three score and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and to the end of the war desolations are determined.

 

Now that we know from history that the Roman emperor Titus, with his troops, destroyed Jerusalem and its temple in 70 A.D. (which is still one of the largest mass destructions in history), we know that the Messiah should have appeared and died before that.

  Also, as the prophesy refers to seventy weeks or approximately 490 years, we can see that this too leads to the same time. If we take as the starting point any declaration of the Persians about rebuilding of Jerusalem and its temple, and add 490 years, we will always end up with a time before the year 70 A.D. In other words, the prophecy of Daniel clearly indicates that the Messiah should have appeared and been destroyed before the year 70 A.D., when the city of Jerusalem and its temple were destroyed. Later points of time cannot be possible.

 

THE Prophecy of Jacob

 

The second reference to the time of the coming of the Messiah can be found from the blessing of Jacob which is in Genesis. This prophecy refers to how the descendants of Judah will not give up their right to rule their nation or transfer their legislation right (later the Sanhedrin Council) to anyone before the coming of the Messiah. This prophecy states:

 

- (Gen 49:10) The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and to him shall the gathering of the people be.

 

Therefore, as we now know, Judah lost its national unity, existence as a state, and also the right to make laws in the devastation of the year 70 A.D., and this set its own deadlines for the time of the coming of the Messiah; also according to this prophecy, He should have come already before the event in question.

   Already before this point in time, in 6 A.D., the scepter of Judah had been partially superseded. When the last king of Judah, Herod's son Archelaus, was overthrown from power and the Roman procurators took his place, the Sanhedrin lost a part of its power. It is indeed told that Rabbi Rahmon said then:

 

It came as a shock to the members of the Sanhedrin to realise that the right to control life and death had been taken away from them. They covered their heads with ashes and their bodies they covered with sack clothes, shouting, “Oh us poor things, we have lost the sceptre of Judah and the Messiah has not yet come." (1)

 

Therefore, we can draw a conclusion from this prophecy and from the previous prophecy of Daniel that they set clear deadlines for the first coming of the Messiah. According to this prophecy, the Messiah should have been in the world at the latest by 6 A.D. , while according to the prophecy of Daniel he should have died before 70 A.D. ("shall Messiah be cut off"). Both prophecies indicate how the Messiah should have lived no later than in the first half of the first century. Later points in time – such as after 70 A.D. – are, therefore, quite impossible.

 

The time of coming of the Messiah in old Jewish sources

 

As we noted before, in the light of the Bible the Messiah's first coming should already have come true, which many rabbis have also observed. According to them, too, the coming of the Messiah should have taken place already a long time ago. Maimonides and many other expositors have referred to this in their writings, which is incidentally also discussed in the Talmud:

 

The explanation of Maimonides. In the foreword of this chapter we quoted a statement of the well-known and appreciated Bible expositor, rabbi Maimonides (RaMBaM). He pointed out the delay of the Messiah's coming: “...and despite being delayed, I shall wait...” (This view is the most common among Jews at present.)

   On the other hand, Maimonides has also referred to the coming of the Messiah when explaining the prophecy of Daniel in his letter "Igeret Teiman" (3. Chapter, p. 24). He speaks about how the last times have already come, yet there is no sign of the Messiah. He understood well that the times described in the prophecy of Daniel should already have expired:

 

But Daniel has explained the depths concerning the last times to us. But because they are hidden, our learned – blessed be the memories of them – have prevented us from calculating the days to the coming of the Messiah, so that simple people would not be led astray when they see that times of the end have already come but the Messiah has not arrived. That is why our learned – blessed be the memories of them – have said: cursed be the man who calculates the times of the end. But we cannot claim that Daniel made a mistake in his calculations...

 

It is good to consider a statement of historian Josephus, another Jew who wrote about the same Book of Daniel. Josephus stated in an interesting way, when writing in the first century, how numerous prophecies of Daniel had accurately been fulfilled. He said about the prophecies of Daniel:

 

Daniel has prophesied and written about all of this years ago. Similarly, his writings reveal the slavery of our nation and its destruction by the Romans. All these writings Daniel left to history, by orders of God, to give the reader and the observer of history a testimony about how God gave him a great honour, and to assure doubters who exclude the possibility of all guidance from their lives, to believe that God still takes care of what happens in the world." (Josephus Antiqv. X. 10 and 11).

 

The so-called tradition of Elijah speaks about the same issue as the report of Maimonides. Also according to this tradition, the Messiah should have come already almost 2,000 years ago, but for the sake of people's sins, it is believed that his coming was hindered:

 

The world will stay for six thousand years: two thousand of them will be times of desolation, two thousand of them the times of the Torah, and two thousand of them the days of the Messiah, even though for the sake of our sins, which were very large, this happened. (Sanhedrin 97. a).

 

The Talmud. When we look at the Talmud, we find several references to how the Messiah should already have come. One of these statements has been told for example, by rabbi Yehuda, who is commonly called just "rabbi". He stated about the times which Daniel prophesied:

 

These times have already ended long ago. (Sanhedrin 9. b).

 

The Midrash of the Lamentations. The fact that the Messiah was expected already during the second temple (the first temple was built by king Salomon and the second was built after the captivity of Babylon; the second temple was finished by king Herod, and was destroyed in 70 A.D.) appears in the Midrash of the Lamentations. There is said:

 

At the moment the temple was destroyed, the Messiah was born. (...) But a storm took him away.

 

THE Origin of the Messiah

 

Since we have already discussed the deadline of the coming of the Messiah, it is good to clarify next what kind of origins he should have had, in other words, from which family he had to be descended.

  We can indeed state that the Bible gives very clear references to it. The Messiah should have been the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob – all of them were given a similar promise. The Messiah should not only be of the tribe of Judah, but he had to be a descendant of its royal branch, of the house of king David. If a person did not have this family tree, it was impossible to deem him the real Messiah:

 

A promise to Abraham (also Isaac and Jacob got the same promise – Gen 26:4 and 28:14):

 

- (Gen 22:18) And in your seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because you have obeyed my voice.

 

Tribe of Judah

 

- (Micah 5:2) But you, Bethlehem Ephratah, though you be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you shall he come forth to me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.

 

The descendant of David – a promise to David

 

- (2 Sam 7:8,12,13) Now therefore so shall you say to my servant David, Thus said the LORD of hosts, I took you from the sheepcote, from following the sheep, to be ruler over my people, over Israel:

12  And when your days be fulfilled, and you shall sleep with your fathers, I will set up your seed after you, which shall proceed out of your bowels, and I will establish his kingdom.

13  He shall build an house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom for ever.

 

WAS YESHUA A descendant of DAVID?

 

As comes to Messiah's origin, He should have been the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and come from the tribe of Judah, from its royal branch, the house of king David to be precise.

   On the other hand, if we consider the alternative that Yeshua who lived in the first century is the Messiah, it is worth noting that He descended from exactly the right royal family branch. Among other things, the Talmud (Sanhedrin 43 a) does not deny that Yeshua belonged to the tribe of Judah and to the house of David but confirms it:

 

Yeshua, who was of royal origin.

 

Although there were twelve tribes in Israel, of which Judah was only one, Yeshua descended from just this tribe and from its royal branch, from the house of king David. The Gospels do not mention anywhere that somebody was against it. On the contrary, people called Him the son of David, which indicates that they knew Him to be a descendant of king David. If this was not true, His opponents would certainly have used it against Him to refuse His position as the Messiah, which, however, did not happen, as we are told.

   We shall look at some passages in the New Testament, which are connected to this issue:

 

- (Hebr 7:14) For it is evident that our Lord sprang out of Juda; of which tribe Moses spoke nothing concerning priesthood.

 

 - (Luke 1:31-33) And, behold, you shall conceive in your womb, and bring forth a son, and shall call his name JESUS.

32  He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give to him the throne of his father David:

33  And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.

 

- (Matt 1:1) The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.

 

 - (Rom 1:1-3) Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated to the gospel of God,

2  (Which he had promised before by his prophets in the holy scriptures,)

3  Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh;

 

 - (Matt 15:22) And, behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts, and cried to him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, you son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil.

 

 - ( Rev 22:16)  I Jesus have sent my angel to testify to you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star.

 

Therefore, people during the time of Yeshua did not doubt His origin but were excited in other ways. The following description is a good example of this:

 

 - (John 10:22-25) And it was at Jerusalem the feast of the dedication, and it was winter.

23  And Jesus walked in the temple in Solomon’s porch.

24  Then came the Jews round about him, and said to him, How long do you make us to doubt? If you be the Christ, tell us plainly.

25  Jesus answered them, I told you, and you believed not: the works that I do in my Father’s name, they bear witness of me.

 

THE Genealogies and the deadline for the coming of the Messiah

 

If we return to the point of time of the coming of the Messiah, there is still one special reason why He should have appeared before the year 70 A.D. when Jerusalem and its temple were destroyed.

   The reason is that the archives of the temple previously contained the catalogues of all tribes (from which also the origins of Yeshua could be checked), but they were also destroyed in the same devastation.

  What is special about this is that if someone still wanted to prove that he was the Messiah and from the house of king David after this, he could no longer do it. This was no longer possible because the only sure and reliable evidence concerning the origins had disappeared, and it became virtually impossible for anyone to prove his generic background in a convincing way. Therefore, the Messiah should have come before the disaster of 70 A.D.