1 Messianic Passages in the Old Testament As Cited in Rabbinic
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Messianic Passages in the Old Testament as Cited in Rabbinic Literature Alfred Edersheim Edited by Robert C. Newman Introduction I first read Alfred Edersheim's Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah back in 1969, while I was still a student in seminary. The author's treatment of the life of Jesus, and his ability to help us visualize those times through his use of the rabbinic literature, was quite valuable to me. I was especially helped by his appendix 9, "List of Old Testament Passages Messianically Applied in Ancient Rabbinic Writings." This appendix was used by me on several occasions in selecting passages to include in some of my papers and Power-Point talks on Messianic prophecy. The only drawback I found with the appendix was that, in order to keep the size of Life and Times down to two substantial volumes, it was necessary to give the Old Testament passages only by reference, omitting the quotation of the actual texts. This publication is intended to remedy that problem. In this work, wherever Edersheim cites an OT passage, I have given the text in full. I have normally used the New American Bible Updated, as this is one of most literal translations of the Bible into English. In a few places where this translation is not close to the quotation in a rabbinic passage, I have used the New International Version or the New King James Version. For Edersheim's citations from the Apocrypha near the end of this work, I have used the New Revised Standard Version Apocrypha. Those not from the NASU are marked as NIV, NKJV or NRA. For readers who may not be familiar with Alfred Edersheim, a short biosketch is given under his name in Wikipedia, which is dependent on the biographical entry in the New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, also available on the Internet. In brief, Edersheim (1825- 1889) was born in Vienna of Jewish parents, converted to Christianity under John Duncan, studied at Edinburgh and Berlin, served as a missionary and pastor in the Free Church of Scotland, and later in the Church of England. He wrote a number of books on Jewish history and culture, and biblical history and messianic prophecy, of which his best known work is the Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, published in 1883. Robert C. Newman July, 2011 Appendix 9 LIST OF OLD TESTAMENT PASSAGES MESSIANICALLY APPLIED IN ANCIENT RABBINIC WRITINGS (Book II. ch. 5.) THE following list contains the passages in the Old Testament applied to the Messiah or to Messianic times in the most ancient Jewish writings. They amount in all to 456, thus distributed: 75 from the Pentateuch, 243 from the Prophets, and 138 from the Hagiographa, and supported by more than 558 separate quotations from Rabbinic writings. Despite all labour care, it can scarcely be hoped that the list is quite complete, although, it is hoped, no important passage has been 1 omitted. The Rabbinic references might have been considerably increased, but it seemed useless to quote the same application of a passage in many different books. Similarly, for the sake of space, only the most important Rabbinic quotations have been translated in extenso. The Rabbinic works from which quotations have been made are: the Targumim, the two Talmuds, and the most ancient Midrashim, but neither the Zohar (as the date of its composition is in dispute), nor any other Kabbalistic work, nor yet the younger Midrashim, nor, of course, the writings of later Rabbis. I have, however, frequently quoted from the well-known work Yalkut, because, although of comparatively late date, it is really, as its name implies, a collection and selection from more than fifty older and accredited writings, and adduces passages now not otherwise accessible to us. And I have the more readily availed myself of it, as I have been reluctantly forced to the conclusion that even the Midrashim preserved to us have occasionally been tampered with for controversial purposes. I have quoted from the best edition of Yalkut (Frankfort a. M., 1687), but in the case of the other Midrashim I have been obliged to content myself with such more recent reprints as I possessed, instead of the older and more expensive editions. In quoting from the Midrashim, not only the Parashah, but mostly also the folio, the page, and frequently even the lines are referred to. Lastly, it only remains to acknowledge in general that, so far as possible, I have availed myself of the labours of my predecessors - specially of those of Schöttgen. Yet, even so, I may, in a sense, claim these references also as the result of my own labours, since I have not availed myself of quotations without comparing them with the works from which they were adduced - a process in which not a few passages quoted had to be rejected. And if any student should arrive at a different conclusion from mine in regard to any of the passages hereafter quoted, I can at least assure him that mine is the result of the most careful and candid study I could give to the consideration of each passage. With these prefatory remarks I proceed to give the list of Old Testament passages Messianically applied in ancient Rabbinic writings. Genesis In Gen. i. 2 [The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters], the expression, 'Spirit of God,' is explained of 'the Spirit of the King Messiah,' with reference to Is. xi. 2 [The Spirit of the Lord will rest on Him, The spirit of wisdom and understanding, The spirit of counsel and strength, The spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord], and the 'moving on the face of the deep' of 'repentance,' according to Lam. ii. 19 [Arise, cry aloud in the night At the beginning of the night watches; Pour out your heart like water Before the presence of the Lord; Lift up your hands to Him For the life of your little ones Who are faint because of hunger At the head of every street]. So in Ber. R. 2, and in regard to the first point also in Ber. R. 8, in Vayyik. R. 14, and in other places. Gen. ii. 4: 'These are the generations - twdlwt - of the heavens and of the earth,' taken in connection with Gen. iii. 15 [And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel] and Ruth iv. 18 [Now these are the generations of Perez: to Perez was born Hezron]. Here we note one of the most curious Messianic interpretations in Ber. R. 12 (ed. Warsh. p. 24 b). It is noted that the word 'generations' (twdlwt) is always written in the Bible without the w which is the equivalent for the numeral 6, except in Gen. ii. 4 and Ruth iv. 18. This to indicate that subsequent to Gen. ii. 4 the Fall took place, in which Adam lost w - six - things: his glorious sheen (Job xiv. 20: You forever overpower him and he departs; [You] change his appearance and send him away); life (Gen. iii. 2 19: By the sweat of your face You will eat bread, Till you return to the ground, Because from it you were taken; For you are dust, And to dust you shall return); his stature (Gen. iii. 8: They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden - either by 100, by 200, by 300, or even by 900 cubits); the fruit of the ground; the fruits of the trees (Gen. iii. 17: Then to Adam He said, "Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, `You shall not eat from it'; Cursed is the ground because of you; In toil you will eat of it All the days of your life); and the heavenly lights. We have now seen why in Gen. ii. 4 - that is, previous to the Fall - the w is still in twdlwt, since at that time these six things were not yet lost. But the w reappears in the word twdlwt in Ruth iv. 18 [Now these are the generations of Perez: to Perez was born Hezron], because these six things are to be restored to man by 'the son of Pharez' - or the Messiah (comp. for each of these six things: Judg. v. 31 b [But let those who love Him be like the rising of the sun in its might]; Is. xlviii. 22 [There is no peace for the wicked," says the Lord]; Lev. xxvi. 13 [I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt so that [you] would not be their slaves, and I broke the bars of your yoke and made you walk erect]; Zech. viii. 12 [For [there will be] peace for the seed: the vine will yield its fruit, the land will yield its produce and the heavens will give their dew; and I will cause the remnant of this people to inherit all these [things]]; Is. xxx. 26 [The light of the moon will be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be seven times [brighter], like the light of seven days, on the day the Lord binds up the fracture of His people and heals the bruise He has inflicted]).