ENEWS: Jesus, the Messiah, foretold long ago

For the observant Jew, one of the most important events anticipated in the Hebrew Bible is the arrival of the Messiah to redeem His chosen and rule over them during the Messianic age.  Without this Messianic hope, Judaism would be stripped of its fundamental purpose and spiritual drive.

For the observant Christian, who reads the Hebrew scriptures in light of the New Testament, the most important details are the Messianic prophecies that point towards Jesus’ coming.  Without the fulfillment of these ancient prophecies Jesus may have claimed to be the Messiah but He would not have demonstrated it.

To make sense of the Christian proclamation that Jesus is the Messiah, it is important to show which Messianic prophecies were fulfilled in Jesus’ birth, life, death, and resurrection.  There are approximately sixty major Messianic prophecies with more than 300 references in the Old Testament.  This is a conservative estimate using only those scriptures that have traditionally been viewed as describing some attribute or act related to the Messiah.  The Messianic prophecies cover the whole period of the Old Testament—the first found in Genesis and the last in Malachi.  These predictions were told through God’s prophets in advance.