Messiah in the Tanakh

By Daniel Muller

“That very day two of them [disciples of Yeshua] were going to a village named Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, and they were talking with each other about all these things that had happened.  While they were talking and discussing together, Jesus himself drew near and went with them.  But their eyes were kept from recognizing him.

And he said to them, ‘What is this conversation that you are holding with each other as you walk?’

And they stood still, looking sad.   Then one of them, named Cleopas, answered him, ‘Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?’  And he said to them, ‘What things?’

And they said to him, ‘Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, a man who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how our chief priests and rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death, and crucified him.  But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things happened.  Moreover, some women of our company amazed us. They were at the tomb early in the morning, and when they did not find his body, they came back saying that they had even seen a vision of angels, who said that he was alive.  Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but him they did not see.’

And he said to them, ‘O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken!  Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?’

And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.”  (Luke 24:13)

In this passage we see clearly that Yeshua, raised from the dead, recognized that all that had happened to him – his life’s ministry, his excruciating death, his burial and resurrection – all were proclaimed in the Hebrew Scriptures, the Tanakh, proclaiming him to be Messiah and Lord.  Throughout the Brit Hadashah (The New Testament), the writers refer back to the Tanakh as their authority for Christ and faith in Him.

If there is any passage in Tanakh that best illustrates Yeshua as Messiah it is Isaiah 52:13-53:12.  Although the Jewish opponents of Christianity claim that the Christian community mistranslates this passage (a claim that can easily be turned around), it is so clear a picture of Jesus that Jewish religious leaders do all that they can to keep Jewish people from hearing or reading it.  In the Jewish community there are actually sephrot (books) of Isaiah that have this chapter entirely taken out.  In the slightly altered words of Shakespeare, “I think that they protest too much!”

Over the course of time, it is our hope that this page will be resplendent with links to discussions on Isaiah 53 and the many other verses and passages that Yeshua no doubt used with the two disciples on the road to Emmaus.  Below you will find a small sampling that you might want to check out.  If you need a bible please contact us so we can send you one.  You can also contact us if you have any questions.

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