Brett A. Todd
Did Jesus believe that he was the long-awaited Messiah? This is a completely different question than asking, did Jesus believe he was God? God and Messiah are not interchangeable titles but Messiah and King often refer to the same person, like King David in the Bible who is called the king and anointed one (the Messiah). Psalm 28:8 referring to King David reads, “The Lord is the strength of his people; he is the saving refuge of his anointed.” Yes, the title Messiah means “the anointed one”.
Did Jesus believe he was the Messiah, the anointed one (the King)? Yes. Among scholars, there really isn't much of a debate on this matter. This is how Mark 15:32 narrates this Jesus title, “Let the Messiah, the king of the Jews, come down from the cross now...”
You may remember the story of when Jesus stood before Pilate. Pilate asked Jesus point blank if he was the King of the Jews. Jesus' answer is interesting, he said, “You say so.” Which means that yes I am but I don't need to say because you already did (Mark 15:2). Further, all four Gospels agree, above the head of Jesus on the cross hung a sign that read, “King of the Jews” (Mark 15:26). So once again, did Jesus believe he was the Messiah, the King of the Jews? More than likely, yes, and he died for it as well.
Here is a little caveat, Jesus was not the first person to claim to be the Messiah. You may remember, even in the Gospels there is a warning that many will claim to be the Messiah (Matthew 24:5). But there were even those before Jesus who claimed to be the Messiah.
Back in 2000, archaeologists discovered what some scholars believe to be the most important archaeology find since the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1946/7. Along the banks of the Dead Sea, they found a stone, now called “Gabriel's Stone”, with peculiar writing. One can view this magnificent stone now displayed at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.
Why is this stone so significant? This 4th-1st century BCE stone, or earlier, refers to a messiah who will die and rise from the dead in three days. In Hebrew, it reads, “In three days, live” Of course, this stone is not referring to the Jesus of the New Testament. Instead, according to Israel Knohl, a professor of Biblical studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem believes this refers to Simon Peraea (4 BCE).
What does all of this mean? Long before Jesus came along, there was a certain expectation that a Messiah King would come and deliver them, the Jews, from captivity. Jesus was just one of those individuals who believed he too was the Messiah King. More than likely, Christians borrowed this same idea of the Messiah dying and being raised from the dead on the third day from the same source those who wrote Gabriel's Stone got theirs. Maybe the old proverb from Ecclesiastes is right, “...there is nothing new under the sun.”
In our next study, we will look at the words of Jesus, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” What was Jesus talking about, an actual camel and an eye of a needle, or was it a gate found in Jerusalem?
No comments:
Post a Comment