PART TWO
THE LIFE AND
TEACHINGS OF JESUS CHRIST
Chapter V
Christ, the
Prophesied Messiah
It seems almost incredible that the Jews rejected Jesus Christ when He came. They had been looking for the Messiah for hundreds of years. It had been four hundred years since the
completion of the Old Testament writings, and TIMES WERE RIGHT for His
appearance. More than ever, the Roman
suppression caused the Jews to look for their prophesied Savior.
By the time Christ was born, the Jewish
people had served the Romans sixty years.
They, more than all the other nations in the empire, desired to be free
— not only free — but to be THEMSELVES rulers of the world.
The prophets had written of a KING who would
deliver them from bondage and set them on the pinnacle of world
government. Yet, when the prophesied
Messiah began His ministry, the Jews completely and totally REJECTED HIM — not only rejected Him, but became so
insanely enraged they caused Him to be put to death by Roman crucifixion.
They refused to believe the Messiah, the King
of the Jews, could come as a humble
carpenter from Nazareth. They were not
willing to accept HIS MESSAGE, and they were not willing to change from their
own preconceived ideas, customs, and traditions. In rejecting Jesus Christ of Nazareth, the Jews had to turn their
backs on the very PROPHECIES of their
own sacred writings.
Prophesied Five Hundred Years in Advance
Many of the Jews knew early in the first
century A.D., (as we now count time) the Messiah should appear. It had been recorded centuries in advance in
the book of Daniel.
The archangel, Gabriel, appeared to Daniel:
And he informed me, and talked with me, and said, O
Daniel, I am now come forth to give thee skill and understanding. At the beginning of thy supplications the
commandment came forth, and I am come to shew thee; for thou art greatly
beloved: therefore understand the matter, and consider the vision. Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people
and upon thy 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. Know therefore and understand,
that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem
unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks:
the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times. And after threescore 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 unto the end of the war desolations are determined. And he shall confirm the covenant with many
for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the
oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it
desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon
the desolate.[1]
This prophecy, commonly known as the
SEVENTY-WEEKS PROPHECY, pinpoints EXACTLY the year for the BEGINNING OF Christ’s ministry and the exact year of
His death.
Let’s understand it.
Obviously, Daniel is speaking in prophetic symbolism. In two separate places GOD REVEALS how to
INTERPRET prophetic times. These
scriptures prove that one day in a prophecy is equal to a year in fulfillment:
After the number of the days in which ye searched
the land, even forty days, each day for a
year, shall ye bear your iniquities, even forty years, and ye shall know my
breach of promise.[2]
And when thou has accomplished them, lie again on
thy right side, and thou shalt bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty
days: I have appointed thee each day for
a year.[3]
Daniel was inspired to write it would be exactly sixty-nine prophetic weeks from
the commandment to build Jerusalem until the Messiah would appear.
In order to understand this prophecy, then,
we need to know exactly how many days
there are in sixty-nine weeks. Since there are seven days in a week,
multiplying seven times the sixty-nine weeks equals 483 days. A day is equal to
a year in prophecy — the prophesied time lapse is a total of 483 years.
Now, all we need to know is when the decree
was made to restore and build Jerusalem.
There were three separate
decrees issued by the Persian leaders to aid the Jews in their return to
Jerusalem. These decrees were in 536
B.C., 457 B.C., and in 444 B.C. The principal decree, however, the one upon
which the Seventy-Weeks Prophecy is based, is understood by almost all
historians to be 457 B. C.
The date from which the 70 weeks was to be counted
was the decree to rebuild Jerusalem.
There were three decrees issued by Persian kings for this purpose. . .
. The principal one of these was 457
B.C.[4]
A matter of simple arithmetic projecting forward
483 years from 457 B.C., will show the date of Christ’s appearance. That
date is 27 A.D. This was the year
THE MESSIAH WAS TO APPEAR. It is of
special notice here that this is not the birth
of Jesus Christ — but His appearance
as the Messiah.
Daniel’s prophecy clearly reveals this
date. There is no other possibility. In
addition to establishing the date the Messiah would begin His ministry,
Daniel’s Seventy-Weeks Prophecy also reveals the ministry would last for one
full week — that is, seven years. But,
he also reveals the Messiah, the Prince, would be CUT OFF in the midst of the
week, causing the sacrifice and the
oblation to cease. He was to have
an earthly ministry, then, that would last one-half of a week, or exactly three and one-half years. Since His ministry began in the year 27
A.D., his death must have occurred in the year 31 A.D. — exactly three and a
half years after he began to preach.
Now notice the account in Luke’s gospel of the beginning of Christ’s
ministry, “And Jesus himself began to
be about thirty years of age, being (as was supposed) the son of Joseph. . . .[5]
Since Jesus, then, was just about thirty
years of age, as Luke shows, we can easily determine the year of Christ’s birth
by simply going back thirty years from the date His ministry began — 27
A.D. Again, simple mathematics brings
us to the conclusion Christ was born in the year 4 B.C.
Thus, evidence WITHIN THE BIBLE plainly shows
Christ was born, as we now count time, in the year 4 B.C. He began His ministry in 27 A.D. He was crucified in 31 A.D.
From Secular Writings
But the Bible is not the only proof. In addition to the accounts written in the
gospels by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, there are many proofs from SECULAR HISTORY.
It is very common knowledge that Christ was
born in the period of time in Roman history when Augustus was Caesar at Rome,
Herod was governor in Judea, Cyrenius was governor in Syria. There are numerous other references to
figures in Roman history which certainly corroborate and demonstrate the
authenticity of these times.
Let’s examine just a few.
Augustus was Caesar from 27 B.C. to 14
A.D. This was a broad span of time, but
we know from the gospel accounts of Christ’s life that His birth must have
taken place within these years. The
reign of Augustus can by no means pinpoint the exact time.
However, there are two very important dates,
which can be determined through the life of Herod the Great and Cyrenius
(alternate spelling Quirinius), the governor of Syria.
First, Herod the Great
The Jewish historian, Josephus, whom we have already frequently quoted, gives a single,
but most important KEY TO DETERMINE
the date of Herod’s death. It is
important to confirm this date since Jesus Christ was born some time PRIOR TO
THE DEATH OF HEROD. The key was a
decree issued by Herod which caused scores of infant children in and around the
area of Bethlehem to be killed after Herod was told by the wise men from the
East they were looking for the Christ, the King of the Jews.[6] Let’s read Josephus’ account of Herod:
When he had done these things, he died, the fifth
day after he had caused Antipater to be slain; having reigned, since he had
procured Antigonus to be slain, thirty-four years; but since he had been
declared king by the Romans, thirty-seven.[7]
These two dates are readily recognized by all
historians to be 37 B.C., and 40 B.C., respectively.
Since Josephus generally reckoned reigns from
the spring to the spring of the year, this places the last year of Herod’s life
from the spring of 4 B.C. to the spring of 3 B.C.
To really clinch the date of Herod’s death,
Josephus records an earlier event, sometime before Herod’s death, “AND THAT
VERY NIGHT THERE WAS AN ECLIPSE OF THE MOON.”[8] The footnote in the works of Josephus clearly
dates this eclipse of the moon, which can be determined by astronomical
computation to have occurred on March 13, 4 B.C.
Some confusion has resulted in the account
because Josephus further adds that Herod died prior to a Passover. The Passover in 4 B.C. fell in the second
week in April.
Josephus further adds to the account of
Herod’s death, that after the eclipse of the moon he was put under the care of
physicians for a severe case of distemper, which caused him a great deal of
pain. He also took a trip beyond the
Jordan to find a cure for his illness in the warm baths which were at
Collirrhore. After that, he ordered the execution of numerous political leaders
and had his own son put to death only five days before he died himself.[9]
It would be impossible for all this to have
occurred between March 13, and early April of 4 B.C., less than one month.
The Passover Josephus mentions in connection
with the death of Herod, then, MUST BE the Passover of 3 B.C. — thirteen full
months after the eclipse. This would
certainly allow time for his trip, and for the atrocities he ordered to be
carried out.
The date given by Daniel and the secular
accounts are in complete agreement,
for those who are willing to accept the TRUE FACTS of history.
Christ was born in 4 B.C., some six months
prior to the death of Herod. There is
no doubt about it. He lived
thirty-three and one-half years on earth, at age thirty He began His ministry,
carried it out for three-and-one-half years, and died in the spring of 31 A.D.
The Taxation of Cyrenius
Only the gospel account by Luke records the
taxation and census taken by the governor of Syria.[10] Historians in many cases have not been
willing to admit this taxation ever existed; therefore many have doubted the
reliability of the Biblical accounts and dates.
However, archaeological evidences and historical discoveries have PROVED that
there really was a governor at this time named Cyrenius and that there was a
taxing and census taken by him.
Roman records which have been found dating
back to the time of the Emperor Julian (about 360 A.D.) certainly verify what
Luke wrote. Julian is often called “the
Apostate” because he turned back to paganism from Christianity.[11] In attempting to destroy the Christianity
which had developed in Rome, he said:
Jesus, whom you celebrate, was one of Caesar’s
subjects. If you dispute it, I will
prove it by and by; but it may as well be done now. For you yourselves allow that he was enrolled with his father and
mother in the time of Cyrenius.[12]
To be certain, Julian was not trying to prove
the authenticity of Christ and Quirinius — he was trying to stamp out
Christianity. Yet, this very record in
itself proves there really was a governor in Syria named Cyrenius who did
record the birth of Jesus Christ — it was in the Roman civil records — and it
was common knowledge.
In addition, archaeologists in Rome, in the
year 1764, discovered Roman records in stone which mentioned the name of
Cyrenius, governor of Syria and stated that he not only served as governor of
Syria one time, but twice.[13] This solves a very great enigma some
historians have had in understanding the Biblical account. Part of the problem lies in the proper
translation of Luke 2:2. It should
read, “This was THE FIRST ENROLLMENT, when Quirinius was governor of Syria”
(RSV). It seems apparent that there was
yet another enrollment made at a later date, probably in 6 A.D. This must be the enrollment referred to by Luke
in the book of Acts, “After this man rose up Judas of Galilee in the days of
the taxing¼”[14]
This taxing mentioned in the book of Acts
must be the later taxing — but we can clearly see that there was a taxation
made in the time of Augustus, specifically when Quirinius was governor in
Syria.
For this reason, as the Biblical account then
shows, Joseph and Mary were in Bethlehem, since the Roman requirement was for
all women over twelve years of age (and slaves also) to be subject to a head
tax, as well as men over fourteen, until the age of sixty-five.[15] Each individual had to return to the land of
his forefathers’ heritage for the taking of the census. Joseph and Mary had traveled to Bethlehem,
the city of David, and were there when Jesus Christ was born.
Once again, we see both the Biblical and
secular accounts fit hand-in-glove and irrefutably
prove the EXACT TIMES for the events
mentioned in the Bible. And from the
quote we just read regarding the Emperor Julian, this taxation and the birth of
Jesus Christ were a part of Roman records at least up until the fourth century
A.D. — after which the records must have become lost.
In the writings of the early Church Fathers
after the first century A.D., Justin Martyr wrote concerning this same taxation
in about the year A.D., 105:
Now there is a village in the land of the Jews
thirty-five stadia from Jerusalem, in which Jesus Christ was born, as you can
also ascertain from the registers of the taxing under Cyrenius your first
procurator in Judea.[16]
The authenticity of these times and also the
dates are, then, corroborated first and foremost by God’s Word, the Bible,
secondarily from the writings of the early Church Fathers, and thirdly by
official Roman records — certainly irrefutable proof of Christ’s existence,
birth, and the dates of events mentioned in the Bible.
Jesus Christ was the Messiah — He was the
fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies.
The Prophecies Fulfilled
Since we have already historically proved
that Jesus Christ was a literal figure of history — and there will be more on
this in a later chapter — let us now look into the prophecies of the Old
Testament and their fulfillment in the New Testament, to prove that the
writings of the New Testament did fulfill in every detail everything the
prophets wrote of Jesus Christ.
The following is a chart showing these
prophecies and their fulfillment in the life of Jesus Christ. You will see how in every minute detail the
Jesus Christ of the Bible, and history, fulfilled the scriptures.
An interesting study was undertaken by a
mathematics instructor in California some time ago. He and his class figured the mathematical probability of one man
fulfilling forty-eight of the major prophecies of the Messiah out of the Old
Testament.
Each student was given one prophecy and had to
calculate the probability of its fulfillment.
The result of all forty-eight problems added together shows a nearly
unbelievable probability of ONE MAN meeting the requirements of every single
one of the forty-eight prophecies.
The chance that such a person would ever be
born and fulfill each step of the life prophesied is 10 to the 180th
power. Let me write that out — that
would be one chance out of 10,000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000,
000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000,
000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000,
000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000,
000, 000. That’s ONE HUNDRED EIGHTY-ONE
ZEROS![17]
Yet
Christ fulfilled all forty-eight — and even many more than the particular ones
chosen for this math problem. Here,
then, are a representative number of fulfilled prophecies.
FULFILLED
PROPHECY OF THE MESSIAH
BIRTH OF THE MESSIAH
PROPHECY FULFILLMENT
Isaiah
prophesied that a Isaiah
7:14 Matthew
1:20-23
virgin
would bear a son Isaiah
9:6-7
and
call him Emmanuel.
While
He was yet in the Isaiah
49:1 Luke
1:31
womb
He would be called
by
His name (like Isaiah)
The
Messiah would be Psalms
2:7 Matthew
1:18, 20
the
begotten Son of God. Luke
2:46-48, 52
Gifts
of gold and incense Isaiah
60:6 Matthew
2:11
would
be brought before Psalms
72:10
the
Christ after His birth.
It
was prophesied that Micah 5:2 Matthew 2:1
Christ
would be born in
Bethlehem.
Christ
would come from II
Samuel 7:12-16 Matthew
1:1
the
line of David. Jeremiah
23:5
_____________________________________________________________________________
Christ
would be of the Isaiah
11:1 Matthew
1:6
seed
of Jesse.
