Robert Atkin February 2010

What sort of saviour or messiah was Israel expecting according to diverse Old Testament
traditions?

Every king of Israel and Judah was known as anointed one, which in Hebrew is
messiah, because the prophet or high priest anointed him, usually with olive oil, at the
time of his enthronement. The anointing symbolised being set apart and made holy so that
the king would represent his people before Yahweh, their God.1 The line of kings came to an
end with the exile of Judah to Babylon. Over time the name anointed one gradually took
on a new meaning, that of a future agent of God who would save Israel. However, the Old
Testament writers had different ideas as to what sort of saviour this messiah would be.

Messiah

Joseph Fitzmyer quotes the dictionary definition of Messiah as the expected king and
deliverer of the Jews. He goes on to describe how the English word Messiah is derived
from the Greek which is a form of the Aramaic ( m), and is related to the
Hebrew ( ham-m), the Messiah.2 Although, Donald Juel notes that the absolute
the Messiah never appears in the Old Testament. The noun is always followed by a
modifier (his messiah, my messiah, the LORDs messiah, etc.).3 The idea of a Messiah
who would save Israel and herald in a messianic age develops over time. There are
clues as to who this Messiah would be and the scope of his mission scattered through the
Old Testament.

The kings of Israel and Judah

After Israel escaped slavery in Egypt and started to become a nation in Canaan, it did not
have a king. Instead the people were governed by a series of men and women called Judges,
raised up by God, who delivered them from the surrounding nations. Fitzmyer calls Israel a
theocratic people;4 God was their king rather than a man. Eventually the people
demanded a king, as recorded in 1 Samuel 8, to rule over them in the same way as the other
nations around them. Saul became the first king of Israel and he was anointed by the
prophet Samuel.5 Fitzmyer explains that the custom of anointing a king was apparently
inherited, from a Hittite or Canaanite practice and was used for kings in Israel for many
centuries.6

When Saul turned away from God, the LORD rejected him and in his place raised up a new
king, David, who was anointed by Samuel.7 After Sauls death, the men of Judah anointed
David as their king,8 and eventually he was anointed as king over all Israel by the elders of
Israel.9 Thus started a dynasty of kings from the line of David who were to rule Israel, and
later, after the northern tribes rebelled under Jeroboam, Judah until the final king, Zedekiah,
was carried off to exile in Babylon.

1 J. A. Fitzmyer, The One Who is to Come, (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2007), p.8
2 Ibid., p.1
3 D. Juel, Messianic Exegesis: Christological Interpretation of the Old Testament in Early Christianity,

(Philadelphia: Fortress, 1988), p.11

4 Fitzmyer, p.10
5 1 Samuel 10:1
6 Fitzmyer, p.8
7 1 Samuel 16:13
8 2 Samuel 2:4
9 2 Samuel 5:3

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However, it was not only kings who were anointed. Maurice Casey explains that priests and
prophets could be anointed as well. He provides examples: at 1 Kings 19:16 Elijah is
instructed by God to anoint Elisha as a prophet instead of himself; at Leviticus 4:3 the high
priest is called the anointed priest; and at Isaiah 45:1 the Persian king Cyrus is referred to
as his anointed, that is Gods anointed.10 Fitzmyer adds that eventually, after the
deportation to Babylon, was applied to the High Priest of the time.11

Fitzmyer lists seventeen Old Testament passages where is applied to the reigning king
of Israel without even hinting at a Messiah or a messianic expectation. He gives a
further fourteen examples from postexilic passages and the Psalms where is used in the
same manner. Fitzmyer is making the point that in each of these examples should be
translated as Anointed One rather than Messiah as they refer to historical figures acting
as Gods agents who served His people.12

Messianic prophecies

There are other passages in the Old Testament that have been described as messianic
prophecies. Fitzmyer splits these into two categories; those from before the monarchy which
do not strictly describe a Messiah and those which talk of a continuation of the Davidic
dynasty and begin to reveal the future hope of a Messiah. He argues that it is later Jewish
and Christian tradition that has interpreted the former passages as referring to a coming
Messiah. Examples include reference to Judah rising above the other tribes from Genesis
49:10 and Numbers 24:17 and Gods promise to Moses to raise up a prophet like him from
Deuteronomy 18:15-18.13

The line of David

Fitzmyers second category of Old Testament passages build on the idea of a dynasty
beginning with David. In 2 Samuel 7, the prophet Nathan delivers a message to David from
the LORD that He will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body,
and [the LORD] will establish his kingdom ... and [the LORD] will establish the throne of his
kingdom forever.14 Fitzmyer continues to list other passages which refer to the continuation
of the Davidic monarchy, including Isaiah 7:1-9; 8:23-9:6; 11:1-10,15 and Psalms 21, 45, 72,
101, 110 and144:1-11.16

Fitzmyer makes reference to the Servant Songs in Isaiah, especially from Isaiah 52:13-53:12.
Here he argues that it is unclear from the text whether the servant represents the people of
Israel, or an individual, or both. He also notes that is not in the passage, and so should
not be used to refer to a messianic figure.17 Christopher Wright disagrees, adding that the
figure of a suffering servant was understood messianically by the first century BC; the
servant who would not only suffer, but be rejected and brutally killed.18

10 M. Casey, From Jewish Prophet to Gentile God: The Origins and Development of New Testament
Christology, (Cambridge: James Clarke & Co, 1991), p.42
11 Fitzmyer, p.11
12 Ibid., pp.13-25
13 Ibid., pp.26-32
14 2 Samuel 7:12-13, ESV
15 Fitzmyer, p.35
16 Ibid., p.43
17 Ibid., p.40
18 C. J. H. Wright, Knowing Jesus through the Old Testament, (Oxford: Monarch Books, 2005), p.154

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The idea of a restored monarchy from the line of David, and a reunified kingdom, emerges
in Hosea 3:4-5, which was written about the time of the fall of the northern kingdom of Israel
to Assyria. Hosea says the children of Israel shall return and seek the LORD their God, and
David their king. The suggestion of a future David is continued by Jeremiah writing to
those in exile in Babylon in Jeremiah 30:8-9 and by Ezekiel, writing at the same time, in
Ezekiel 34:23-24.19 Both passages refer to a David of the future as being the king or prince.

Writing after the exile, Micah 5:2 describes the place of birth of the future king and Malachi
4:5-6 refers to the great and awesome day of the LORD before which the prophet Elijah
would return. Fitzmyer explains that Elijahs return was seen as a precursor of the Messiah,
because the coming of the Messiah depends on whether Israel repents and reforms; so Elijah
was thought to come first to bring about repentance and reformation.20 It is evident that
there was the expectation that the line of David as kings of Israel, or anointed ones, would
be restored, but this does not yet necessarily refer to a Messiah figure.

The coming Messiah

N.T. Wright states that after the exile most Jews were hoping for a turn in Israels fortunes;
that God would restore her fortunes. He writes the symbols of covenantal life will be
restored, because the covenant will be renewed: the Temple will be rebuilt, the Land
cleansed, the Torah kept perfectly by a new covenant people with renewed hearts.21 Hope
was placed in this age to come, sometimes described as the messianic age. N.T. Wright
describes the salvation spoken of in the Jewish sources of this period has to do with rescue
from the national enemies, restoration of the national symbols, and a state of shalom in which
every man will sit under his vine or fig tree.22

N.T. Wright and Fitzmyer both identify the book of Daniel as where the idea of a Messiah
figure, who will restore the fortunes of Israel, begins to take shape.23 24 In chapter 7, Daniel
sees a vision of four beasts which refers to four kingdoms (Babylon, Media, Persia and
Greece) that would be replaced by the kingdom of God. In verses 9-14 there is the
description of what Fitzmyer calls a heavenly court of judgement25 where God is called
the Ancient of Days26 and there is identified one like a son of man.27 Fitzmyer describes
the four interpretations of who this character is. One interpretation is that the son of man
is a human individual identified as the Messiah, although C. J. H. Wright says most
scholars are agreed that the Son of Man was not a messianic title or figure in the inter-
testamental Jewish writings.28

Later on in Daniel 9:24-27 there is a prophecy about seventy weeks, which refers to a period
of 490 years, after which Judah would be restored. Verse 25 mentions the coming of an

19 Fitzmyer, pp.47-49
20 Ibid., pp.53-54
21 N. T. Wright, The New Testament and the People of God: Volume 1, (London: SPCK, 1992), p.280
22 Ibid., p.300
23 Ibid., p.304
24 Fitzmyer, p. 57
25 Ibid., p.57
26 Daniel 7:9, ESV
27 Daniel 7:13, ESV
28 C. J. H. Wright, p.149

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anointed one29 which Fitzmyer notes is the first occurrence in the Old Testament itself of
used for an awaited Anointed One.30 C. J. H. Wright adds that this anointed one will
come and will bring a climax to Gods purpose.31 N.T. Wright says that this passage was a
favourite of revolutionary minded Jews in the first century, since they reinterpreted it so that
it spoke of a kingdom to be set up against the present Roman oppression.32

A priest like Melchizedek

Margaret Barker has a different interpretation of the prophecy in Daniel 9, although she
draws a similar conclusion. Melchizedek was king of Salem and priest of God Most High.
He blessed Abram in Genesis 14:18-20 and is referenced in Psalm 110: You are a priest for
ever after the order of Melchizedek.33 As previously mentioned this is one of the Psalms
prophesying to the Davidic dynasty. Barker argues that there were those in the second
temple period who complained that they were still in exile, and that for them there had
been no glorious return in the time of Joshua and Zerubbabel, Ezra and Nehemiah. They
were cherishing the memory of an older faith, that of the anointed kings in Jerusalem and
their lost temple.34

Cross-referencing non-biblical Jewish texts found at Qumran to Daniel 9:24-27, Barker states
that the 490 years is equal to ten Jubilee35 periods. She continues This is linked to Isaiah
61:1, another Jubilee text: The spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has
anointed me... to proclaim liberty to the captives.36 Barker argues that a divine high priest
Melchizedek was expected to appear and proclaim the great Jubilee, to forgive sins, to
rescue his own from the power of the evil spirits, to make the great atonement sacrifice and
sit in judgment on the evil angels.37 In other words, the expected Messiah was an anointed
High Priest.

Conclusion

From a Christian perspective, it is possible to retrospectively look back over the Old
Testament and interpret a wider selection of passages that would be fulfilled by identifying
Jesus Christ as the Messiah. However, when trying to understand the mindset of pre-
Christian Jewish expectation, there is a progression of thought evidenced in Old Testament
writings of first a continuation of the Davidic dynasty, of anointed kings, who would rule
over Israel. This then develops at a time of national crisis, during the exile to Babylon, into
an expected Messiah figure who would lead Israel into period of restoration, with the
Temple rebuilt, the land cleansed and a messianic age of shalom, worshiping the true God.

29 Daniel 9:25, ESV

30 Fitzmyer, p.62
31 C. J. H. Wright, p.143
32 N.T. Wright, p.304
33 Psalm 110:4, ESV
34 M. Barker, Temple Theology: An Introduction, (London: SPCK, 2004), p.3
35 A Jubilee is a Sabbath rest for the land defined in Leviticus 25, being a period of seven times seven,

i.e. 49, years.

36 Barker, p.71
37 Ibid., p.72

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Bibliography

M. Barker, Temple Theology: An Introduction, London: SPCK, 2004.

M. Casey, From Jewish Prophet to Gentile God: The Origins and Development of New Testament
Christology, Cambridge: James Clarke & Co, 1991.

J. A. Fitzmyer, The One Who is to Come, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2007.

D. Juel, Messianic Exegesis: Christological Interpretation of the Old Testament in Early Christianity,
Philadelphia: Fortress, 1988.

C. C. Ryrie, The Ryrie Study Bible, Chicago: Moody Press, 1985.

F. C. Thompson, The Thompson Chain-Reference Bible, London: Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1988.

C. J. H. Wright, Knowing Jesus through the Old Testament, Oxford: Monarch Books, 2005.

N. T. Wright, The New Testament and the People of God: Volume 1, London: SPCK, 1992.