Messianic Prophecy and Expectation

Overview

Recall questions on the Suffering Servant and Davidic descent, first-century messianic expectation, Wrede and the messianic secret, Matthew's formula quotations in the birth narratives, Brown and Hooker, and the problem of a crucified Messiah.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   Who is the Suffering Servant, and why does the figure matter so much in New Testament study?

   Model answer

   The Servant is the figure described in the later chapters of Isaiah as chosen by God, despised and rejected, silent under affliction, and bearing the consequences of others' wrongdoing before being vindicated. Jewish interpreters in the period read the figure variously as the prophet himself, a faithful remnant, or Israel as a nation. Early Christian writers drew on the Servant material to make sense of a Messiah who suffered, which is why so much New Testament language about suffering on behalf of others carries its imprint.

2. 2

   Why did descent from David matter to Jewish messianic hope?

   Model answer

   God's promise to David was remembered as a promise of a lasting royal house. Jewish hope in the period therefore often pictured the anointed one as a king of David's family who would restore Israel, throw off foreign rule and establish justice from Jerusalem. Not every strand of expectation was royal, but the Davidic strand was strong enough that a claim to be the Messiah invited the question of ancestry.

3. 3

   Was there one agreed picture of the Messiah in first-century Judaism?

   Model answer

   No. Scholars describe a range of hopes rather than a single doctrine: a Davidic warrior king, a priestly anointed figure, a heavenly deliverer, a prophet like Moses, and in some circles two anointed figures rather than one. Some groups seem to have had little active messianic expectation at all. This diversity matters because it means the gospel writers were working within a contested field, not correcting one settled definition.

4. 4

   Explain what is meant by the messianic secret.

   Model answer

   It is the pattern, most pronounced in Mark, by which Jesus silences those who identify him: demons are told to be quiet, healed people are told to say nothing, and the disciples are told not to publicise the confession that he is the Messiah. Parables are also said to conceal as much as they reveal. The term was coined by William Wrede, who treated the pattern as a single deliberate motif rather than a set of unrelated incidents.

5. 5

   Why did Wrede think the secrecy commands came from the evangelist rather than from Jesus?

   Model answer

   Wrede argued that the commands are often absurd as history, since they are given in circumstances where concealment is impossible and are routinely disobeyed. He proposed that the motif was the early community's way of explaining why Jesus had not been acclaimed as Messiah during his lifetime: the church believed he was Messiah from Easter onwards, and secrecy accounted for the silence of the earlier period.

6. 6

   What is a formula quotation, and how does Matthew use them in the opening chapters?

   Model answer

   A formula quotation is a citation of the prophets introduced by an editorial comment that an event happened so that what was spoken might be fulfilled. In the birth material Matthew attaches them to the conception and the name Emmanuel, to Bethlehem as birthplace, to the return from Egypt, to the mourning for the children of the region, and to the family's settlement in Nazareth. Each turns an episode into a demonstration that the story belongs inside Israel's scriptures.

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