The Messianic Hope: Is the Hebrew Bible Really Messianic? (NAC Studies in Bible & Theology)

Several years ago, when I was first getting into studying the Jewish Roots of Christianity and the Hebrew Roots of the Bible, I read Zola Levitt's The Bible: The Whole Story. Levitt basically stated that the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament) laid out a mystery or detective story of a person who would save mankind and reverse the fall of man that took place early in Genesis. He then walked you though the Bible, starting with Genesis 3:15, and showed how Yeshua (Jesus) fulfilled many of those OT passages during his first appearance on earth.Interestingly, if Levitt's book could be considered a grade school text on the subject, Rydelnik's book, The Messianic Hope: Is the Hewbrew Bible Really Messianic, is definitely a master's level college text on much the same subject. It is challenging and exciting to read this book. I have read two of these NAC Studies in Bible & Theology, this is number 9 in the series, and they are just excellent. They are complex, but they will take you where few other studies will take you (like the narrow road) and it is well worth the journey.The premise of this book is to determine whether the Old Testament was written to foretell the coming of a promised Messiah, or whether the texts often credited as foretelling about the coming Messiah are about other things and men who lived at the time of the writing, or both (dual fulfillment). Rydelnik states that there are two main schools of thought about this question and he looks deeply into the two schools.Rydelnik says, "though contemporary evangelical scholarship continues to recognize Jesus as both Lord and Messiah, they fail to see the importance that Jesus Himself gave to messianic prophecy as proof of His own identity." Rydelnik goes on to say, "critical scholarship has, by and large, abandoned biblical inspiration." However, Yeshua and the writers of the New Testament, saw the Hebrew Scriptures as validating the work of Yeshua. This is important, because as Rydelnik states, "the foundation to our confidence and salvation in the person and work of Jesus the Messiah is that He indeed did fulfill the words of the prophets."Rydelnik goes on to outline four reasons why it is so important to see the OT as a messianic document from start to finish. He says the foremost reason for seeing the Hebrew Bible as a messianic document is that this appears to be the best way to explain the evidence of the Scriptures themselves. A second reason for treating the Hebrew Bible as a messianic document is that it provides the most biblical apologetic for Jesus as the Messiah. A third reason it is crucial to treat the Hebrew Bible as messianic is that it enables followers of Yeshua to have confidence in the Bible as God's inspired Word. A fourth reason messianic prophecy is so essential is that it is foundational for identifying Yeshua as the true Messiah.As he walks you through his book, Rydelnik says that "from the New Testament period until the modern period, the church spoke unanimously that in some way Jesus of Nazareth fulfilled OT messianic prophecies. However, a shift began to occur in the modern period." That shift started in the 1700s and continues to this day. Rydelnik outlines all the ideas and individuals, he names many of those who oppose the messianic approach, and summarizes their beliefs to show how the change took place. He also outlines those who opposed these people that denied the messianic content of the Hebrew Bible.The interesting thing to me, coming from a background of studying the Hebrew Roots of the Bible, is that anyone would question the messianic content at all, particularly certain verses in the Bible. Chief among those verses are ones that Rydelnik uses to illustrate his points against those who argue against a messianic perspective. These verses include Genesis 3:15, the seed prophecy to the woman, Isaiah 7:14, the virgin birth (the issue of almah (virgin, young woman) is looked at in its real context and is a real highlight of the book) and Psalm 110, the "Lord and David" question that Jesus posed to the Pharisees. Rydelnik takes a chapter on each of these verses and the discussion is excellent in showing that the Hebrew Bible was messianic in nature. It baffles me personally that anyone would see it in any other way, just from my own reading of the scriptures. I would totally agree with Rydelnik when he says, "the words of Jesus and the apostles show that they believed that the OT writers actually knew that they were writing about the Messiah."In Mike Robinson's review, also posted here, he goes through a sort of chapter by chapter summary, so I won't repeat that, but I do want to end by mentioning Rydelnik's comments on how differing versions of the Bible and the influence of Rashi have influenced this change in direction away from the messianic perspective. Rydelnik points out that there are several significant examples of the Masoretic Text interpreting OT messianic texts in a distinctly nonmessianic (or historic) fashion, whereas other ancient versions interpret the same texts as referring to the Messiah. Of course, the Masoretic text was a post-Christian, Jewish version of the OT and the rabbis wanted to downplay anything that connected passages to Yeshua in OT passages.This is a fascinating book and well worth the read. You will obtain wisdom from this book!

When the apostles preached the Gospel to their fellow Jews, their message centered around the claim that Jesus of Nazareth had fulfilled a number of predictions about a coming Messiah made by the biblical prophets hundreds of years before. Following the teaching of Jesus himself, they viewed the Hebrew Scriptures as a messianic text.In this book, Messianic Jewish scholar Michael Rydelnik persuasively argues that these Messianic prophecies must remain an integral part of Christian proclamation and apologetics. He begins in chapter two by surveying the ways in which Christian scholars have interpreted the prophecies over the last 200 years. He documents an increasing trend, even among evangelical scholars, of interpreters shying away from the idea that the biblical writers made direct predictions of the coming of the Messiah. Two important exceptions in recent years are conservative scholars Walter Kaiser and John Sailhamer. Rydelnik champions Sailhamer's approach of carrying out a close literary reading of the Hebrew canon in its final form and sets out to demonstrate that this approach supports the traditional messianic understanding of a number of prophecies.In chapter 3 Rydelnik demonstrates the importance of using all of our textual information to identify messianic references. In particular, he points out several examples where the Septuagint (LXX) translation of a verse gives a more clearly messianic reading than the Masoretic Text (MT). In Num 24:7, for example, the MT has, "his king shall be higher than Agag", while the LXX has, 'his king shall be higher than Gog". The reference to Gog, an end-time enemy of God, gives the LXX reading a more eschatological emphasis. In 2 Sam 23:1, the LXX has David speaking "concerning" the Messiah, a hint to watch out for messianic references in his writings. In Ps 22:16, the MT has, "as a lion, my hands and feet," while the LXX has, "they have pierced my hands and feet," an apparent reference to the Crucifixion. And at the end of Ps 110:3, where the MT is nearly unintelligible, the LXX has, "from the womb of the dawn, I have begotten you", making a link with Ps 2 and giving extra evidence for the messianic thrust of Ps 110.Rydelnik shows in chapter 4 that some passages traditionally associated with the Messiah are interpreted messianically by later scripture. His examples include Gen 49:8-12, which is alluded to in Ezek 21:27; Num 24:17-19, alluded to in Amos 9:12; and Deut 18:15-18, whose meaning is clarified in a note by a later editor in Deut 34:10.In chapter 5 Rydelnik asserts, following Sailhamer, that the Old Testament canon was organized to emphasize messianic hope. The Torah ends in Deut 34 with a note that the Messiah had not yet come by the time of the book's final editing, and then Joshua 1 urges Joshua to continually meditate on the Torah. Similarly, Malachi at the end of the Prophets closes with messianic expectation, and then the Writings begin in Psalm 1 with the instruction to continually meditate on the Torah. This pattern implies that the wise will be faithful to the Torah until the Messiah comes. Rydelnik also contends that one criterion for the inclusion of a book in the canon is a presentation of the Messianic hope, and he indicates how that hope is laid out in each book.Rydelnik shows in Chapter 6 that Jesus (Luke 24; John 5) and the apostles (Acts 2-3, 13 17) understood that the entire Hebrew canon supported the claim that Jesus is the Messiah. Following Walter Kaiser, Rydelnik notes the claim in 1 Peter 10-12 that the prophets had known they were predicting the Messiah's suffering and subsequent glory and only lacked knowledge of the identity of the Messiah and the time of his appearance.Rydelnik focuses on Matthew 2 in Chapter 7 to illustrate 4 ways in the which the New Testament uses the Hebrew Scriptures: (1) Direct fulfillment, illustrated by the reference in Matt 5-6 to the prophecy of Micah 5; (2) Typical fulfillment, illustrated by the reference in Matt 2:15 to Hosea 11:1, with Num 24 in the background; (3) Applicational fulfillment, illustrated by the reference in Matt 2:18 to Rachel weeping for her children in Jer 31:15; and (4) Summary fulfillment, illustrated by the reference in Matt 2:19-23 to the motif of the Messiah as a despised figure.In chapter 8 Rydelnik discusses the influence of Rashi (1040-1105), the great medieval Jewish exegete, on both Jewish and Christian biblical interpretation. Rydelnik notes that Rashi was motivated by Christian claims to find non-messianic readings of traditional messianic passages. The early Protestant reformers, with their emphasis on the plain sense of the biblical text, saw Rashi as an ally, but Rydelnik cautions that they may have also inadvertently picked up some of Rashi's anti-messianic bias from his writings.Then in Chapters 9-11, Rydelnik considers three texts in detail (Gen 3:15, Isa 7:13-14, Psalm 110), making a strong case that the traditional messianic understanding of each of these is well-founded.Overall I highly recommend this book, both for its overall argument and for its valuable insights into particular passages of Scripture..

The author is Dr. Michael Rydelnik, the book is part of the NAC Studies in Bible & Theology, volume 9. His topic concerns the question of the prophetic hope that modern day Messianic believers have in Yeshua as Messiah. There are 12 chapters with chapter 12 calling for A CALL TO RETURN TO THE MESSIANIC HOPE. The book is a course on Messianic Prophecy and deals with these features: 1. Why Messianic Prophecy, the Nature of Prophecy- Old Testament views of Messianic Prophecy, Textual Criticism, Interbiblical Perspectives, Canonical issues, New Testament Perspectives, How the N.T. reads the O.T., Rashi and his influence on messianic prophecy., chapters 9-11 are examples of Messianic Prophecy in the O.T. A good read for those interested in the subject. Dr Rydelnik teaches at Moody Bible Inst. (University?)

I think I originally heard this recommended by Cameron Bertuzzi on the excellent Capturing Christianity channel, and boy its one recommendation I haven't regretted taking. It has around five sections, if I remember correctly, each dealing with an important aspect of Biblical. The research is in-depth, don't be fooled by the thin-ness of the volume. Selected prophesies are given an in-depth analysis, especially the ones that have been the subject of debate in apologetic circles, so this is really valuable. Other chapters give important perspectives on changing interpretative frameworks especially among certain liberal theologians that have gained leverage in modern times, and how the roots of these schemes are derived from rabbinic Judaism. There's a chapter on how the very structure of the Old Testament is messianic, which I found particularly eye-opening and novel. Finally there's a chapter on the manner of fulfilment in the New Testament. Everything is well-referenced and written in good scholarly language. You won't regret buying this if you want to take a deep an soul-satisfying dive into the Messianic prophecy of the Bible.

Excellent book

Excellent erudite read on messianic prophesy