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July 29 - August 9, 2018
word “Christ” meant more than simply its literal meaning, “anointed one.” It had already become a messianic title.
The Hebrew noun mashiakh (anointed one) is found forty times in the Old Testament. There are three groups of people who are said to be “anointed”: kings, priests, and prophets. The group most often called “anointed” in the Bible are the kings.
In addition to Saul and David, there are other kings who are also labeled “anointed” or “messiah” in the Bible.
curious example is King Cyrus the Great, the founder of the Persian Empire, not an Israelite, whom the prophet Isaiah calls “[the Lord’s] anointed” (Isaiah 45:1). Cyrus was the Persian king who brought an end to the Babylonian captivity and allowed the Israelites to return home from exile.
Calling Cyrus the Lord’s “anointed” is Isaiah’s way of saying that Cyrus, the only non-Israelite in the Old Testament who is called a “messiah,” did what he did because it was the God of Israel who anointed him, endowed him with the authority to reign, and w...
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The second group of individuals who are called “anointed” in the Old Testament are the priests. Chapter 4 of the book of Leviticus explains the nature of a particular kind of offering that was brought to the temple in Jeru...
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The Hebrew verb “to anoint” is used sixty-nine times in the Hebrew text of the Old Testament.
The third group, finally, are the prophets of Israel. Here the evidence is sparse. In 1 Kings 19, God tells Elijah to anoint two kings, Hazael of Aram and Jehu of Israel. God also commands Elijah to anoint Elisha “as prophet in your place,” but then the actual anointing of Elisha is never told.
Psalm 105:15, the psalmist recalls how God has always protected Israel since the time of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The psalmist then notes how God rebuked the foreign kings, “Do not touch my anointed ones [or “my messiahs”]; do my prophets no harm.” The phrases “my anointed ones” and “my prophets” are used in parallel lines in the psalm. In biblical poetry, two expressions that are used in parallelism typically refer to the same subject. The “anointed ones” in Psalm 105 thus are God’s prophets.
The act of anointing is part of their divine call and initiation rite. It bestows them with divine authority, even if they themselves do not become divine.
It is equally important to notice what we do not find in the Old Testament. While there are several individuals in the Bible who are said to be anointed, the word “messiah” or “anointed one” is never used in the Old Testament to designate a future anointed redeemer figure. In other words, there are no texts in the Old Testament that know of the concept of a messiah as an awaited agent of God, a descendant of David who will appear to reign over a restored kingdom of Israel at the end of time.
That concept of a future messiah was only developed in later times, after the Old Testament. There are several “messiahs” in the Old Testament, to be sure, but they are not divine figures of the end of time. They are the kings, priests, and prophets of ancient Israel. And yet, when Andrew tells his brother Simon Peter, “We have found the Messiah,” or when the Samaritan woman declares, “I know that the Messiah is coming,” they are not referring to an ear...
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We find that concept develop in the literature that was written during the gap years in between t...
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There are no texts in the Old Testament that speak of a future messianic figure of the end time. There are, however, several biblical texts that provide the scriptural basis for messianic expectations in ancient Judaism. A few of these biblical passages mention an “anointed” figure, but most of them do not. In Second Temple times, these texts came to be interpreted as predictions of a future messiah.
A recurring theme in the texts from the Old Testament that came to be interpreted as messianic prophecies is the hope that the messiah will be a royal figure who will come from the line of King David.
God promises David an eternal dynasty, a Davidic kingdom that will exist forever. “Your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me; your throne shall be established forever.” Remarkably, the divine promise is an unconditional promise. The house of David will exist forever, regardless of whether Israel will follow the divine commandments.
Later in the history of Israel, foreign empires such as the Babylonians and later the Romans conquered Jerusalem, and the throne of David did come to an end. But Israel never forgot Nathan’s oracle and the unconditional promise that the house of David would exist forever.
Why do the nations conspire, and the peoples plot in vain? 2 The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and his anointed. (Psalm 2:1–2) For the psalmist, the revolt by the foreign kings and rulers is not simply a revolt against the city of Jerusalem, it is a revolt against God and the king of Israel, God’s chosen representative.
This use of the Hebrew term accords well with other places in the Old Testament where, as we have seen, the king is also said to be anointed.
In these verses, the king remembers the moment when he assumed his royal office. While the king himself does not become divine, God calls him “my son.” This is similar to our previous text, 2 Samuel 7, in which God promised David regarding his offspring: “I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me.” The phrase in verse 7, “today I have begotten you,” is commonly interpreted by scholars to reflect an enthronement ceremony of the new king in Jerusalem.
The following portion of the text is taken from fragment 2 (bracketed elipses such as [. . .] in the translation below represent missing or unintelligible passages in the text). 1 [. . . for the heav]ens and the earth will listen to His messiah, 2 [and all w]hich is in them shall not turn away from the commandments of the Holy Ones. 3 Strengthen yourselves, O you who seek the Lord, in His service! 4 Will you not find the Lord in this, all those who hope in their heart? 5 For the Lord seeks the pious and calls the righteous by name, 6 and His spirit hovers over the poor, and He renews the
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Lord’s “marvelous acts such as have not existed.” The list, which is rather specific, begins in line 8, is briefly interrupted in lines 9 through 11, and then continues in lines 12 and 13. In the preserved portions of the text, the list consists of seven blessings God will bestow: to free the prisoners, to give sight to the blind, to straighten the twisted, to heal the badly wounded, to resurrect the dead, to proclaim good news to the poor, and to feed the hungry.
Such lists of the events that will occur when the messiah comes are not uncommon in early Jewish writings.
Psalm 17 is most explicit in its lament over the current circumstances and in its appeal to God to send the messiah. The psalmist begins by recalling how, when God chose David to be king over Israel, God swore to David and to his descendants that the Davidic kingdom would never fall, an allusion to the promise in 2 Samuel 7 of an eternal Davidic dynasty. With Pompey’s invasion of Jerusalem in 63 BCE, though, the psalmist is forced to admit that the kingdom has fallen.
21 See, Lord, and raise up for them their king, the son of David, to rule over your servant Israel in the time known to you, O God. 22 Gird him with the strength to destroy the unrighteous rulers, to purge Jerusalem from gentiles who trample her to destruction; 23 in wisdom and in righteousness to drive out the sinners from the inheritance; to smash the arrogance of sinners like a potter’s jar; 24 to shatter all their substance with an iron rod; to destroy the unlawful nations with the word of his mouth; 25 at his warning the nations will flee from his
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this king is none other than “the Lord’s Messiah.” This Davidic messiah, for whom the psalmist prays, is a royal messiah. He is a military ruler who rules with force, defeats Israel’s enemies, cleanses the city of its Gentile occupation, and destroys “the unlawful nations.” This form of messianic expectation, which does not shy away from using language of violence to describe the activities of the messiah, is borne out of a specific historical situation: the violence that had previously been committed against Jerusalem.
Among the biblical texts that underlie the psalm is Isaiah 11, the description of the future king of the line of David. The messiah in Psalms of Solomon 17 will be endowed with wisdom and strength (Isaiah 11:2), and he will destroy the unlawful “with the word of his mouth” (Isaiah 11:4). Another scriptural proof text from the Old Testament is Psalm 2, whose king will be victorious over the rulers of the nations.
But we need to return to the Messianic Apocalypse. How can the author of this text from Qumran be so certain about God’s eschatological blessings in the messianic age? Where does this catalogue of God’...
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the description of God’s deeds is heavily dependent on the Old Testament, particularly on the biblical ps...
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One of the key texts that underlies the Messianic Apocalypse is Psalm 146, a biblical hymn in praise of God the Creator and Redeemer. The psalmist lists several of the divine attributes, characteristics of the God of Israel that are so marvelous that they simply demand Israel’s praise. This list overl...
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[It is the Lord] who executes justice for the oppressed; who gives food to the hungry. The Lord sets the prisoners free; 8 the Lord opens the eyes of the blind. The Lord straightens out the twisted [or: lifts up those who are bowed down]; the Lord loves the righteous. (Psalm 146:7–8)
There are four blessings that are shared by both Psalm 146 and the Messianic Apocalypse (even though they appear in a slightly different order): God feeds the hungry, God sets the prisoner free, God gives sight to the blind, and God straightens out the twisted. The psalmist’s assertion that God “loves the righteous” (Psalm 146:8) is reminiscent of the assurance in the Messianic Apocalypse of the Lord’s preferential treatment of the righteous, whom God will call by name.
In addition to Psalm 146, another biblical text figures prominently in the Messianic Apocalypse. This is a short passage from Isaiah 61.
The passage in question reads as follows. 1 The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me; he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners; 2 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn. (Isaiah 61:1–2)
The anonymous speaker in Isaiah 61 recalls how God has endowed him with the divine Spirit and has anointed him. Indeed, the Spirit is upon him “because” God has anointed him. The speaker then goes on to relate the specific tasks of his mission, with which God has entrusted him. These tasks are expressed in a string of infinitives: “[God] has sent me to bring good news . . . to bind up . . . to proclaim liberty . . . to proclaim. . . .” There is, once again, some overlap with the list of God’s deeds in the Messianic Apocalypse: to bring good news to the oppressed and to release the prisoners.
Psalm 146 provided the author of the Messianic Apocalypse with a list of some of God’s blessings, but the ...
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In fact, there is nothing in Psalm 146 to suggest that this is a text that talks about the end time, apart from the marvel...
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It is easy to see how, for the author of the Messianic Apocalypse, the anointed figure in Isaiah 61 is none other than the anointed one, that is, the messiah of Israel who will come at the end of time. For the interpreter at Qumran, Isaiah 61 has become a biblical proof text that predicts the marvelous deeds that God will do at the Advent of the messiah.
From Qumran, we jump into the New Testament. In Luke 4, we read of Jesus’s travels to Galilee in northern Israel, after his temptation by the devil in the wilderness. Now Jesus returns to his home town, the city of Nazareth. It is the Sabbath, and Jesus goes to the synagogue, in Luke’s words, “as was his custom.”
14 Then Jesus, filled with the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee, and a report about him spread through all the surrounding country. 15 He began to teach in their synagogues and was praised by everyone. 16 When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, 17 and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written: 18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to
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The story of Jesus in the synagogue in Nazareth marks the beginning of his public ministry. It matters to Luke to portray Jesus as a faithful Jew who was deeply immersed in the Judaism of his time.
The prophetic passage Jesus reads, it turns out, is a conflation of two passages, both taken from the prophet Isaiah: Isaiah 61:1–2 and Isaiah 58:6. Isaiah 61 is the same passage that underlies the Messianic Apocalypse from Qumran. Isaiah 58 is a divine oracle in which God describes the form of worship that God prefers over the ritual fasts.
“Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke?” (Isaiah 58:6).
Why does Luke have Jesus read these particular verses from Isaiah? For Luke, Jesus is the anointed figure of Isaiah 61, who is filled with the Spirit. Notice how in Luke 4:1 and in 4:14, Jesus is already said to be filled with the Spirit.
Luke thus prepares his readers for his claim that Jesus is the messianic figure of Isaiah 61 even before he introduces the text of Isaiah 61.
Jesus brings good news to Israel and proclaims liberty to the captives. That prophecy, “to let the oppressed go free,” which is part of Jesus’s reading and comes from Isaiah 58:6, not only harkens back to the prophet I...
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Luke thus carefully anchors the life and teaching of Jesus in the history of ancient Israel. Jesus’s ministry is the fulfillment of the hopes expressed by the prophet Isaiah, of Israel’s yearning for the good news, for healing and liberty. This yearning is deeply grounded in the exodus story and God’s liberating intervention. All Jesus has to say is, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” Luke wants to tell his readers: Jesus i...
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A few chapters later, Luke provides yet another list of the events that are associated with the pr...
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20 When the men had come to [Jesus], they said, “John the Baptist has sent us to you to ask, ‘Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?’” 21 Jesus had just then cured many people of diseases, plagues, and evil spirits, and had given sight to many who were blind. 22 And he answered them, “Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have good news brought to them.” (Luke 7:20–22)
It is intended to answer John’s doubts and, at the same time, reaffirm Jesus’s identity as the Messiah.
