Bible to Judaism and Christianity

Transcription

1 Lecture 21: Frm the Messiah sn f David t the Messiah Sn f Gd (M Apr 13) Three main plitical authrities in the Hebrew Bible wh will figure in ur discussin: King: head f gvernment: warrir; in charge f justice; presides ver the cult -- in first temple times the temple was built and maintained by the Davidic king. Dynastic successin. [Nrthern kingdm had nn-davidic kings, and nly limited dynastic successin.] [Cult = the liturgy f the temple, the rituals by which humans wrship the deity; sacrificial cult = the regimen f animal sacrifices that was the centerpiece f the Jerusalem temple] Prphet: frthteller mre than freteller ; human intermediary; charismatic miracle wrker [Elijah, Elisha] vs. literary prphet [Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel]; part f the ryal establishment r ppsed t it; a warning figure; n dynastic successin Priest: in charge f the temple cult; dynastic successin, father t sn, line f Aarn; institutinal authrity; In additin t his ther titles and functins, Jesus in the histry f Christianity is als all three f these. See Wikipedia, Threefld ffice. King (f the Jews): Matthew 2:1-2 After Jesus was brn in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time f King Herd, Magi [usually translated wise men ] frm the east came t Jerusalem 2 and asked, Where is the ne wh has been brn king f the Jews? We saw his star when it rse and have cme t wrship him. Matthew 27:11 Meanwhile Jesus std befre the gvernr (Pilate), and the gvernr asked him, Are yu the king f the Jews? Yu have said s, Jesus replied. 27:37 Abve his head they placed the written charge against him: THIS IS JESUS, THE KING OF THE JEWS. In Mt and Lk Jesus is regularly called sn f David Prphet: Luke 4:24 Truly I tell yu, he cntinued, n prphet is accepted in his hmetwn. Acts 7:37 This is the Mses wh tld the Israelites, Gd will raise up fr yu a prphet like me frm yur wn peple. (alluding t Deuternmy 18:15 The LORD yur Gd will raise up fr yu a prphet like me frm amng yu, frm yur fellw Israelites. Yu must listen t him.) Mark 8:27-29: 27 Jesus and his disciples went n t the villages arund Caesarea Philippi. On the way he asked them, Wh d peple say I am? 28 They replied, Sme say Jhn the Baptist; thers say Elijah; and still thers, ne f the prphets. 29 But what abut yu? he asked. Wh d yu say I am? Peter answered, Yu are the Christ [sme translatins: the Messiah]. Priest: see next week (passages in Hebrews) Kings, prphets, and priests in the Bible are all aninted (see livius.rg website); messiah (Hebrew mashiah) fr aninted ne, in Greek Christs. sacred bjects (altars, tabernacle) als get aninted; the meaning f aninting is nt clear Frm the Catechism f the Cathlic Church para. 436: It was necessary that the Messiah (= Jesus) be aninted by the Spirit f the Lrd at nce as king and priest, and als as prphet. Jesus fulfilled the messianic hpe f Israel in his threefld ffice f priest, prphet, and king. I fcus here n dynastic Davidic kingship. The charter f Davidic kingship is 2 Samuel 7: 2 Samuel 7: The LORD declares t yu that He, the LORD, will establish a huse [=dynasty] fr yu. 12 When yur days are dne and yu lie with yur fathers, I will raise up yur ffspring after yu, ne f

2 yur wn issue, and I will establish his kingship. 13 He shall build a huse fr My name, and I will establish his ryal thrne frever. 14 I will be a father t him, and he shall be a sn t Me. When he des wrng, I will chastise him with the rd f men and the afflictin f mrtals; 15 but I will never withdraw My favr frm him as I withdrew it frm Saul, whm I remved t make rm fr yu. 16 Yur huse and yur kingship shall ever be secure befre yu; yur thrne shall be established frever. Dynastic kingship is like priesthd: eternal successin frm a funder figure (Aarn, David). Why then did the Davidic huse fall in 587 BCE? Only fur pssible cnclusins: Gd is faithless an impssible cnclusin Bewilderment, lament (Psalm 89) The cvenant with David and the Davidic huse must have been cnditinal (1 Kings 9:4-9 and Psalm 132:11-12): depends n kings righteusness The eclipse is temprary; Davidic mnarchy will return. This idea facilitated by prphetic speculatins f the arrival f an ideal future, the day f the Lrd, smetimes featuring Davidic king (Isaiah 9 and 11) r perhaps David himself (Ezekiel 34), when nature will be at peace and all will be right with the wrld. Isaiah 11: But a sht shall grw ut f the stump f Jesse, A twig shall sprut frm his stck. 2 The spirit f the LORD shall alight upn him: A spirit f wisdm and insight, A spirit f cunsel and valr, A spirit f devtin and reverence fr the LORD. 3 He shall sense the truth by his reverence fr the LORD: He shall nt judge by what his eyes behld, Nr decide by what his ears perceive. 4 Thus he shall judge the pr with equity And decide with justice fr the lwly f the land. He shall strike dwn a land with the rd f his muth And slay the wicked with the breath f his lips. 5 Justice shall be the girdle f his lins, And faithfulness the girdle f his waist. 6 The wlf shall dwell with the lamb, The lepard lie dwn with the kid; The calf, the beast f prey, and the fatling tgether, With a little by t herd them. 7 The cw and the bear shall graze, Their yung shall lie dwn tgether; And the lin, like the x, shall eat straw. 8 A babe shall play Over a viper's hle, And an infant pass his hand Over an adder's den. 9 In all f My sacred munt Nthing evil r vile shall be dne; Fr the land shall be filled with devtin t the LORDAs water cvers the sea. 10 In that day, The stck f Jesse that has remained standing Shall becme a standard t peples Natins shall seek his cunsel And his abde shall be hnred. Special relatinship between (Davidic) king and Gd: Psalm 2:7: I will prclaim the decree f the Lrd; He said t me, "Yu are my Sn; tday I have begtten yu. Psalm 89:27-28: He will call ut t me, 'Yu are my Father, my Gd, the Rck f my deliverance.' I will als appint him my firstbrn, the mst exalted f the kings f the earth. 2 Samuel 7:14: I will be his father, and he will be my sn. Prbably a marker f status, nt a statement f hw the king was begtten r that king was actually divine. Jesus as sn f Gd in a literal sense is a Christian develpment (see next lecture). [Nte that the Christian reading f these passages is mre literal than the Jewish ne!]

3 In Judaism: Psalm 45:7 and Isaiah 9:6 might suggest that the king is divine, but nt likely; see ntes in JSB With destructin and exile f 587 BCE Davidic mnarchy disappears; n Davidides, n pretenders; beginning f dreams and expectatins that the Davidic king wuld return. Many different messianic scenaris in Judaism; sme apcalyptic texts f the last centuries BCE have priestly messiahs and/r prphetic messiahs, apparently instead f Davidic messiah see livius website Many schlars have suggested that sme Jews believed in a divine r super-human messiah; evidence fr this belief is disputable. These Jews cnnected the messiah with the sn f man visin in Daniel 7. N Jewish grup (aside frm early Christians) develped belief in a messiah as a means fr atnement f sin r salvatin frm sin Rabbinic Judaism understd messiah as Davidic king: warrir, judge, rebuilder f temple (biblical descriptin f king) In rabbinic Judaism messianic era is assciated with ther events even if hw they relate t each ther was never wrked ut systematically: War f Gg and Magg (Ezekiel 38-39), time f tribulatin, war Ingathering f the exiles Final judgment f individuals and natins Rebuilding f the temple in Jerusalem and the restratin f the cult Resurrectin f the dead The wrld t cme In 19 th century refrm Jews reinterpreted the messiah as an era f peace and prgress rather than an individual redeemer. Jews are still waiting Frm the daily amidah (the central prayer f the liturgy): Speedily cause the sprut f David yur servant t sprut, and let his hrn be exalted by yur salvatin, fr we wait fr yur salvatin every day. Praised are yu, Lrd, wh causes the hrn f salvatin t sprut. Cf. Psalm 132:17 Here [= in Zin] I [Gd] will make a hrn sprut fr David, and set up a lamp fr my aninted ne. Cf. Luke 1:69 (prayer f Zechariah the father f Jhn the Baptist) Praise be t the Lrd, the Gd f Israel, because he has cme and has redeemed his peple. 69He has raised up a hrn f salvatin fr us in the huse f his servant David.

4 Lecture 22: Frm the Messiah sn f David t the Messiah Sn f Gd (W Apr 15) In three passages in the Bible the king is called sn f Gd r Gd refers t himself as the king s father : in Christianity this becmes literal Distinguish virgin birth in the gspels frm the Rman Cathlic dctrine f the Immaculate Cnceptin f Mary Matthew and Luke reprt virgin birth f Jesus; fr Matthew this is fulfillment f scripture ( All this tk place t fulfill what the Lrd had spken by the prphet, Behld a Virgin shall cnceive (Mt 1:22-23); fr Luke this is prf f divine pwer ( Fr with Gd nthing will be impssible, Luke 1:37). Mt and Lk als have genealgies back t David thrugh Jseph Mark des nt reprt the virgin birth (althugh the Spirit f Gd hails Jesus as my sn Mk 1:11) Jhn des nt reprt the virgin birth (since Jesus is Lgs/Gd incarnate) Behld a virgin shall cnceive: Isaiah 7:14 accrding t the Grec-Jewish translatin (the Septuagint, the LXX); see ntes in JSB. 10 The LORD spke further t Ahaz: 11 Ask fr a sign frm the LORD yur Gd, anywhere dwn t Shel r up t the sky. 12 But Ahaz replied, I will nt ask, and I will nt test the LORD. 13 Listen, Huse f David, [Isaiah] retrted, is it nt enugh fr yu t treat men as helpless that yu als treat my Gd as helpless? 14 Assuredly, my Lrd will give yu a sign f His wn accrd! Lk, the yung wman is with child and abut t give birth t a sn. Let her name him Immanuel. 15 (By the time he learns t reject the bad and chse the gd, peple will be feeding n curds and hney.) 16 Fr befre the lad knws t reject the bad and chse the gd, the grund whse tw kings yu dread shall be abandned. 17 The LORD will cause t cme upn yu and yur peple and yur ancestral huse such days as never have cme since Ephraim turned away frm Judah that self same king f Assyria! Plain meaning f passage: by the time a yung wman, nw a virgin, shall have cnceived and brn a child (at which pint she f curse will n lnger be a virgin), and that infant shall have grwn int childhd, King Ahaz will have been delivered frm his predicament. Wh is the yung wman? MBS suggest tw prime candidates: Mrs. Ahaz [the wife f the reigning king, mther f Hezekiah] r Mrs. Isaiah (whse baby gets a symblic name in 8:3). Why the Septuagint translated almah as parthens, is nt clear. Tryph has three arguments: The passage says yung wman (almah), nt virgin (betulah) A sn must refer t King Hezekiah, sn f King Ahaz, nt t a figure centuries thence; similarly in Justin 83, Jewish teachers argue that Psalm 110 refers t Hezekiah The Christian stry sunds like Greek myths (67.2) Justin respnds: The passage says virgin; the Jews have tampered with Scripture (71.2) Isaiah 8:4 shws that Isaiah 7:10-17 cannt be talking abut Hezekiah (Justin 77);

5 this requires sme exegetical wrk frm Justin in 78 t shw hw Christ fulfilled the prphecy he received the pwer f Damascus and the spils f Samaria in the presence f the king f Assyria. Devil has placed anticipatins f Christian truth amng the pagans in rder t mislead the faithful (67.2; see als , 70.1, 70.5). Fr Christians Isaiah 7:14 is a messianic verse; part f Jesus messianic status is his divine paternity and virgin maternity. Tryph and many medieval Jewish cmmentatrs argue that the verse is nt messianic at all. The tw cmings f Christ accrding t Justin: It has been fretld in scripture (Justin 52.1) that (a) there wuld be tw cmings f Christ, and (b) that in the first he had t suffer, and (c) that after this cming yur peple [the Jews] wuld have neither prphet nr king, and (d) that the gentiles wh believe in the suffering Christ (e) wuld lk frward t his secnd cming Christianity: (a) Tw cmings f Christ: ne in suffering, the ther in glry (Justin 14.8, 31.1, 36.1, 110.2). This belief allws Justin t cmbine the histrical experience f Jesus with the glrius prphecies f the Bible. (b) Christ had t suffer: the suffering servant f Isaiah (Isaiah 53 see next week), Christ as sacrifice (c) After his cming Jews wuld have neither prphet nr king: Justin 49.3, Prftext: Genesis 49:10 The scepter will nt depart frm Judah, nr the ruler's staff frm between his feet, until he cmes t whm it belngs [r: until Schilh cmes] [Justin: until thse things that are reserved fr him shall have cme] and the bedience f the natins is his. Jews had prphets and kings straight thrugh t the time f Jesus. After that kingship and prphecy stpped. (d) Gentiles will believe in Christ and repent f their sins (Justin 109). Prftext: Micah 4:1-7 (//Isaiah 2:1-4) In days t cme the muntain f the Lrd s huse shall be established as the highest f the muntains, and shall be raised up abve the hills. Peples shall stream t it, 2 and many natins shall cme and say: Cme, let us g up t the muntain f the Lrd, t the huse f the Gd f Jacb; that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths. Fr ut f Zin shall g frth instructin [Trah], and the wrd f the Lrd frm Jerusalem. 3 He shall judge between many peples, and shall arbitrate between strng natins far away; they shall beat their swrds int plughshares, and their spears int pruning-hks; natin shall nt lift up swrd against natin, neither shall they learn war any mre. (e) Secnd cming: in glry, n the cluds (prftext: Daniel 7), annunced by Elijah, fulfilling biblical predictins f a wnderful future. Death will nt have pwer ver thse wh believe in him. Christ is King f the Jews (INRI) f the line f David but is als priest, prphet, Gd, sn f Gd, the begtten Gd wh existed befre the wrld, the Lgs (see last week) Christ is remembered simply as king

6 Christ s battle is against sin and death; the resurrectin represents triumph ver death Suffering and dying and resurrecting messiah has n precedent r parallel in histry f Judaism; Justin cnnects these ideas t the suffering servant passages f Isaiah, esp. Isaiah 53 (which d nt refer either t aninted king r t David) and t Psalm 22 (which seems t be a psalm f lament fr a king) A divine messiah, in whm we are t believe fr the frgiveness f ur sins, als has n parallel in ancient Judaism Secnd cming: just as the cessatin f the Davidic huse suggested a belief that the huse wuld return, s t the death f Jesus suggested the belief in his return. Justin believes that at the secnd cming there wuld be a general resurrectin f the dead fllwed by a thusand year reign in the restred city f Jerusalem (Justin 80.1), a dctrine knwn as millennialism r chiliasm. [see NT Revelatin 20:1-6] The dctrine that Christ wuld reign fr a thusand years in the restred city f Jerusalem is rejected by Jerme (late furth century) as t Jewish Much debate amng Christians thrugh the centuries abut the exact sequence f: Christ s return t earth, his rescue f the faithful, perid f tribulatin, the thusand year reign, resurrectin final judgment, end f days. If yu are interested in the variety f Christian views abut these subjects, including the rapture and Dispensatinalism, g here Christians are waiting, s are Jews