The Divine Mission of Christ Confirmed by Messianic Prophecy

Article 2 — The Divine Mission of Christ Is Confirmed by Messianic Prophecies and Their Fulfilment

I. Method of treatment. (A) The value of this confirmation. Christ Himself, addressing unbelieving Jews, said: “search the scriptures … they … give testimony of me … for he [Moses] wrote of me” (John 5:39, 46); “Abraham your father rejoiced that he might see my day: he saw it, and was glad” (John 8:56). Christ Himself later explained these same prophecies to the disciples on the road to Emmaus — “beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded to them in all the scriptures, the things that were concerning him” (Luke 24:27) — and again after the Resurrection: “all things must needs be fulfilled, which are written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me” (Luke 24:44). The Apostles, in turn, constantly argued from the fulfilment of prophecy (cf. Acts 2:29–36; 3:18; 1 Pet. 1:10–12), and the Vatican Council itself stresses the abiding value of this traditional argument.

(B) Rationalists, by contrast, generally begin from the assumption that supernatural prophecy is simply impossible a priori. Ewald, Reuss, and Kuenen treat every instance of biblical prophecy as no more than a natural phenomenon of religious ecstasy; Darmesteter and Renan suggest that the Messianic hope arose simply from the political subjugation of the Jewish people, a natural longing of a captive nation for both independence and, eventually, universal dominion — and that the character of “Messiah” was, on this view, only later thrust upon Christ, who was Himself originally quite unconscious of any such dignity. It is enough to observe here that within Jewish tradition itself the Messiah was understood as one who would extend the teaching of monotheism to the whole world — a conception that itself must be traced to genuine revelation, since the Jews, as a rule, deeply resented the Gentiles and had no natural desire to share their own religious privileges with them. The Messianic hope, in short, sprang from and was continually nourished by Messianic prophecy itself (cf. Matt. 2:5–6; Luke 1:70; John 1:45).

(C) Method of argument. It is not necessary, for present purposes, to defend the genuineness of each individual prophetic book — that task belongs properly to biblical hermeneutics; it is enough to note that no critic of any real weight denies that all the Messianic prophecies under consideration here were already in existence at least three hundred years before Christ. Nor is it advisable to argue from those prophecies applicable only in a purely spiritual or typical sense; only prophecies genuinely verified in their literal sense are cited below. It will be convenient, finally, to set out these prophecies first in their general character, describing the coming Messianic kingdom broadly, and then in their more specific, individual details.

II. Exposition of Messianic prophecy.

(A) In general, the prophecies of the Old Testament agree across three successive periods — those of the Patriarchs, the Kings, and the Prophets proper — in three constant respects: (1) all the prophets, across some eleven hundred years, taught monotheism and the moral law in God’s own name, preaching faith in one infinitely perfect, just, and merciful God, exercising a providential care over His people and rewarding them accordingly; (2) all foretold the universal spread of the Messianic Kingdom of God, and the propagation of monotheism among all nations (cf. Is. 2:2–4; 66:18–21; Mich. 4:1–4); and (3) all foretold the Messiah as prince and priest, whose passion and sacrifice are themselves clearly foretold, together with His ultimate triumph (cf. Is. 53:10–11; Ps. 2:1–4; Is. 25:6–8).

(B) Special prophecies, in their successive historical periods:

1° The Patriarchal period. The coming of the Saviour and His descent from the line of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Judah is foretold. Gen. 3:15 alludes to the enmity to be placed between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent; God says to Abraham, “in thee shall all the kindred of the earth be blessed” (Gen. 12:3), to Isaac, “in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed” (Gen. 26:4), and to Jacob, “in thee and thy seed … shall all the tribes of the earth be blessed” (Gen. 28:14). Jacob, dying, prophesies of Judah: “the sceptre shall not be taken away from Judah … till he come that is to be sent, and he shall be the expectation of nations” (Gen. 49:10). Balaam, similarly, foretells: “a star shall arise out of Jacob, and a sceptre shall spring up from Israel” (Num. 24:17); and Moses foretells the coming of a great prophet: “the Lord thy God will raise up to thee a prophet of thy nation and of thy brethren like unto me: him thou shalt hear” (Deut. 18:15).

2° The period of the Kings. The Messiah is now described more explicitly as King, Son of God, and mediator between God and men, with His origin, endowments, functions, passion, and ultimate triumph all foretold with increasing clarity. Origin: of the family of David (Ps. 88:4–5; 131:11), born at Bethlehem (Mich. 5:2). Endowments and functions: He shall be called “Son of God” (Ps. 2:7), “God the mighty, the Father of the world to come, the Prince of peace” (Is. 9:6); He shall judge His people in justice and equity, and write His law upon the hearts of the faithful (Jer. 31:33). Passion and death: He will save His people through humble obedience, sorrowful passion, and death (Is. 53:5–7); Ps. 21 famously foretells the sufferings of the Messiah in vivid detail: “I am a worm, and no man: the reproach of men, and the outcast of the people” (v. 7); “they have numbered all my bones … they parted my garments amongst them; and upon my vesture they cast lots” (vv. 18–19). Ps. 68:22 adds: “they gave me gall for my food; and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.” Triumph: Ps. 109 describes the Messiah as priest and Lord of all: “the Lord said to my Lord: Sit thou at my right hand … thou art a priest for ever, according to the order of Melchisedech.” Ps. 71, the great “Messianic psalm par excellence,” and the earliest Hebrew document to use the technical term “Messiah,” calls the king “Christ,” the Anointed One, and foretells that “all the kings of the earth shall adore him: all nations shall serve him” (Ps. 71:11).

3° The period of the Prophets adds still further, more precise detail regarding the Messiah’s origin, endowments, functions, passion, and sacrifice. His origin from the family of David is repeated by Amos (9:11–12), Isaiah (11:1), Jeremiah (23:5), Hosea (3:5), and Ezekiel (34:23–24), with Micah naming Bethlehem specifically as His birthplace: “thou Bethlehem Ephrata art a little one among the thousands of Juda: out of thee shall he come forth unto me, that is to be the ruler in Israel: and his going forth is from the beginning, from the days of eternity” (Mich. 5:2). His kingdom is described as spiritual as much as external (Hos. 2:19–20; Is. 4:4–6; Ezech. 11:19–20), and its universality is repeatedly stressed, embracing all nations, not the Jewish people alone (Is. 2:2–4; 66:18–23; Mich. 4:1–2).

Among the many individual witnesses: Micah names the very place of His birth, as already noted; Isaiah describes the Messiah’s nativity of a virgin — “behold a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel” (Is. 7:14), a name explained a few verses later to mean “God with us” (Is. 8:8, 10) — His divine functions (“God the mighty, the Prince of peace,” Is. 9:6; “the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him,” 11:2), His universal dominion (Is. 24–26), the miraculous healings that would mark His ministry (“then shall the eyes of the blind be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped,” Is. 35:5), the preaching of His precursor (“the voice of one crying in the desert: prepare ye the way of the Lord,” Is. 40:3), His gentleness (“the bruised reed he shall not break, and the smoking flax he shall not quench,” Is. 42:3), His mission as light to the Gentiles (Is. 49:6), and, above all, in the great Fourth Servant Song, His vicarious suffering and sacrificial death in detail (Is. 52:13–53:12) and His ultimate triumph — “if he shall lay down his life for sin, he shall see a long-lived seed … and the will of the Lord shall be prosperous in his hand” (Is. 53:10) — together with the eventual glorification of Jerusalem itself: “arise, be enlightened, O Jerusalem: for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee … and the Gentiles shall walk in thy light, and kings in the brightness of thy rising” (Is. 60:1, 3).

Jeremiah foretells the coming reign of “a just branch” raised up to David (Jer. 23:5–6); Ezekiel foretells one universal shepherd to come, of the house of David (Ezech. 34:23–24; 37:24–25); and Daniel records his famous vision of “one like the son of man,” to whom “was given power, and glory, and a kingdom: and all peoples, tribes, and tongues shall serve him” (Dan. 7:13–14), together with the celebrated prophecy of the seventy weeks fixing, with remarkable precision, the approximate time of the Messiah’s coming (Dan. 9:24–27) — a period which, reckoned from the final decree of Artaxerxes (c. 457 B.C.), brings one to approximately A.D. 30, the very year traditionally assigned to Our Lord’s crucifixion.

Among the last of the prophets, Haggai speaks of the greater glory of the Second Temple, to which “the Desired of all nations” would come (Agg. 2:1–10); Zechariah describes the humble manner of the Messiah’s coming: “behold, thy king will come to thee, the just and saviour: he is poor, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass” (Zach. 9:9); and Malachi foretells both the precursor of the Lord (Mal. 3:1) and the sacrifice of the New Law to come (Mal. 1:11).

III. The Divine origin of these prophecies is manifest even before their fulfilment, for two chief reasons: (A) the Jews themselves accepted the prophetic office as divinely revealed, inasmuch as the prophets’ preaching was itself repeatedly confirmed by miracles — the ten plagues of Egypt, the crossing of the Jordan, the fall of the walls of Jericho, and the miracles of Elias, among many others; and (B) the content of prophetic preaching cannot be explained by purely natural causes: it did not, as a rule, flatter the views or prejudices of the age in which it was delivered, and its doctrine, above all its rigorous monotheism, could not have been borrowed from neighbouring peoples, since monotheism of this kind was, at the time, essentially unknown outside the Jewish nation.

III. The fulfilment of these prophecies. (A) In general: in Christianity is fulfilled the ancient prediction of the universal spread of monotheism; and in Our Lord specifically are fulfilled the whole body of prophecies relating to the Messiah — He was born of the family of David, at Bethlehem, and was recognized as the Son of God, “the mighty God, the Prince of peace”; He saved His people through His Passion and Death; He “saw a long-lived seed,” and all nations now adore Him. These two central prophecies — a suffering Messiah, and a universal, non-national Kingdom — ran directly contrary to the natural desires and expectations of the Jewish people, who had no wish to share their religious privileges with the Gentiles, and it was, correspondingly, only with real difficulty that even the Apostles themselves came to understand the necessity of Christ’s Passion and Death for the inauguration of a spiritual and universal Kingdom of God (cf. Matt. 16:22; Luke 24:25; 1 Cor. 1:23).

(B) In particular, the fulfilment of individual prophecies may be traced point by point: (1) the Messiah’s native town, Bethlehem (Mich. 5:2; Matt. 2:6; John 7:42); (2) His lineage, from Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Judah, and David (Gen. 12:3; 22:18; 26:4; 28:14; 49:8–12; Matt. 1:2–6; Luke 3:23–38); (3) His mother a virgin (Is. 7:14; Matt. 1:18–25; Luke 1:27–34); (4) the homage of kings — “the kings of Tharsis and the islands shall offer presents: the kings of the Arabians and of Saba shall bring gifts” (Ps. 71:10; Is. 60:3–6; Matt. 2:1–11); (5) His precursor (Mal. 3:1; Is. 40:3; Luke 1:76); (6) the beginning of His public preaching (Is. 61:1–2; Matt. 4:12–17); (7) His miraculous healings (Is. 35:5–6; Matt. 11:5); (8) His preaching of the Gospel to the Gentiles (Is. 42:1–7; 49:6; Matt. 12:18–21); (9) His humble triumphal entry into Jerusalem (Zach. 9:9; Matt. 21:4–5); (10) the institution of a new priesthood and sacrifice (Ps. 109:4; Mal. 1:11; Matt. 26:26–29; Luke 22:15–20); (11) the infidelity of the Jews (Is. 8:14–15; Ps. 117:22; Matt. 21:42; Acts 4:11; Rom. 9:32–33; 1 Pet. 2:7–8); (12) the sorrows of His Passion (Ps. 34:11–12; Is. 50:6; 53:7–8; Matt. 26:67–68; Ps. 21; Matt. 27:35–44); (13) His Resurrection (Ps. 15:10; cf. Acts 2:29–32; 13:35–37); (14) the remission of sins in His name (Zach. 13:1; Matt. 9:2; Acts 2:38); (15) His Ascension (Ps. 109:1; Acts 2:34); (16) the mission of the Holy Ghost (Joel 2:28–29; Acts 2:17ff.); (17) the conversion of the Gentiles (Is. 60:1–4; cf. Acts 11:18; 1 Tim. 2:4–7); (18) the ultimate victory of Christ (Is. 53:11–12; Ps. 109:2; John 16:33); and (19) His eternal reign (Is. 9:7; Ps. 2, 44, 109; John 18:36; Matt. 16:18).

IV. The probative force of Messianic prophecy. The prophets, men whose personal integrity is beyond serious dispute, consistently affirmed that the doctrine they taught came to them by divine revelation. The fulfilment of these prophecies, moreover, can be ascribed neither to mere chance nor to natural necessity. (a) As already shown, it is simply impossible that so many distinct circumstances should, by pure chance, converge upon a single, minutely specified contingent prediction; the virtues of the Messiah, the principal facts of His Passion and Death, cannot plausibly have accidentally converged into so exact a fulfilment of Isaiah’s own prophecy — such prophecies, and their subsequent fulfilment alike, simply cannot be set down to mere chance. (b) Nor can their fulfilment be ascribed to natural necessity, since the predictions in question are predictions of genuinely future contingent events, dependent on the free will of many separate individuals across many centuries, and events of this kind cannot, by definition, be foreseen or guaranteed by natural necessity alone. The probative force of prophecy thus arises directly from the fact that such predictions could not, by any possibility, have been made at all without the special, direct intervention of God.

An objection may be raised: did not the prophets also foretell the temporal prosperity and worldly restoration of the kingdom of Israel specifically, a prediction manifestly never literally fulfilled? The answer is that Scripture frequently conveys divine and spiritual realities under the likeness of material images, and that in Messianic prophecy two distinct elements must always be carefully distinguished: (1) the genuine spiritual event foretold — for instance, the inauguration of the universal Kingdom of God — and (2) the merely material figure under which that event happens to be described, namely, in this case, the temporal prosperity of the literal nation of Israel. It is clear, on close reading, that this second, merely figurative element was never intended as the primary content of the prophecy: in some prophecies it is entirely absent, as, for instance, wherever the Messiah is described as one who must suffer and die; and in any case the Kingdom of God is elsewhere explicitly predicted as strictly universal, embracing every nation, and therefore genuinely separable, in its essential meaning, from the literal Temple and the literal city of Jerusalem.