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Jewish / Judaism : When Was the Messiah Expected?, part 7 of 7

Jesus may have been rejected yet, the Talmud makes some very interesting statements that we ought to seriously consider because it is beyond question that something happened that changed the Jewish religion and thus, changed the world of Judaism forever.

What was this occurrence?

The Temple Institute,

The idea of ‘messiah’ is described in the various writings of the prophets with varying attributes. In the book of Daniel, he is described as one who arrives with the clouds of heaven. ‘I saw in the night visions, and behold, one like a son of man came with the clouds of heaven…’ (Daniel 7:13).1

Rachmiel Frydland,

The Jewish people rarely study the book of Daniel because many rabbinic Jews were mislead attempting to interpret Daniel’s cryptic ‘times.’ Some were led so far astray that they came to believe in false messiahs, and therefore talmudic Jews frowned on students who studied Daniel with a view of finding out the time of the Messiah. However, religious Jews knew that this book revealed more about Messiah than any other book.2

From the Talmud:
Talmud-Nazir 32b,

Suppose someone had come and said to you(1) that the Temple would be destroyed, would you have uttered your vow? R. Joseph said: Had I had been there, I should have said to them:(2) Is it not written, The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are these,(3) which points to [the destruction of] the First and Second Temples?(4)—
Granted that they knew it would be destroyed, did they know when this would occur?(5) Abaye objected: And did they not know when? Is it not written, Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people, and upon thy holy city? (6)—All the same, did they know on which day?(7)

Footnote: (1) When you were about to declare yourselves nazirites.
(2) To those who contended that the destruction of the Temple, being an event which could not have been foreseen, could not be used as a ground for release (Asheri).
(3) Jer. VII, 4.
(4) Since it indicates that there would be three temples. Thus the destruction was foretold and could have been anticipated.
(5) And so they could not anticipate it.
(6) Dan. IX, 24. This prophecy was uttered at the beginning of the seventy year captivity in Babylon. From the restoration to the second destruction is said to have been 420 years, making in all 490, i.e., seventy weeks of years.
(7) And since they did not know, they expected to offer their sacrifices before the destruction

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Talmud-Megillah 3a,

The Targum of the Prophets was composed by Jonathan ben Uzziel under the guidance of Haggi, Zechariah and Malachi(1), and the land of Israel [thereupon] quaked over an area of four hundred parsangs by four hundred parsangs, and a Bath Kol(2) came forth and exclaimed. Who is this that has revealed My secrets to mankind?(3) Jonathan b. Uzziel thereupon arose and said. It is I who have revealed Thy secrets to mankind. It is fully known to Thee that I have not done this for my own honour or for the honour of my father’s house, but for Thy honour I have done it, that dissension may not increase in Israel(4).

He further sought to reveal [by] a targum [the inner meaning] of the Hagiographa, but a Bath Kol went forth and said, Enough! What was the reason?—Because the date(5) of the Messiah was foretold in it.(6)

Footnotes: (1) Jonathan b. Uzziel was a disciple of Hillel, so he can hardly have had any direct contact with the prophets mentioned. He may, however, have had traditions handed down from them (Maharsha).
(2) Voice from heaven.
(3) The Targum of Jonathan b. Uzziel is very paraphrasic, and applies many of the prophets verses to the Messianic age.
(4) Through different interpretations being placed on the prophetic allusions.
(5) Lit., ‘end.’
(6) The reference is probably to the Book of Daniel.

Also, note that the Hagiographa is a portion of the Old Testament that contains the Book of Daniel.

Gentile Scholar Risto Santala:

The Jewish scholars refer to the aeons beyond which Balaam’s “clear eye” sees. Ibn Ezra, whose interpretation is followed by all the most comprehensive commentaries, says that Balaam is speaking first about ‘David, because it is said ‘not now but further ahead, after 400 years.’’ And then he says that there are “stars in the sky which are not known by history neither will be known.” “Many have interpreted this as signifying the Messiah,” but in the interim the Moabites, the Amalekites, and Assyria have arisen…”and the unlearned think that if the star is interpreted to mean David, then the coming of the Messiah will be denied.

But away with the thought, because it is clearly said of the Messiah in the prophecy of Daniel, as I have explained, that he prophesied the rise of the Greek kings, the dominion of the Hasmonaeans, the building, siege, and destruction of the second Temple, and the subsequent salvation…”3

Ibn Ezra stated that “there is a clear account given of the Messiah in the prophecy of Daniel.” And indeed: Daniel 9:24-26 gives a definition of the time of Christ’s coming, his main function, and what will happen to Jerusalem and the sanctuary at that time…By “week” is meant seven years. At what point, then, was the word given “to restore and rebuild Jerusalem”? In Nehemiah 2:1-8 we read of the decree of “King Artaxerxes.” Artaxerxes Longimanus (465-424 BC) authorized Ezra the priest to rebuild the city of Jerusalem in the seventh year of his reign, that is, in 457 BC (Ezra 7:7-8 and 11-26). The majority of critics agree upon approximately this year. The prophecy speaks first of all about seven weeks of years during which the Temple will be rebuilt, and indeed the books of Ezra and Nehemiah describe this 49 year building phase “in the midst of dire times.” After this there are a further 62 weeks to the coming of the Messiah.

62 x 7 = 434 years. Altogether, then, the time from the issuing of Artaxerxes decree to the coming of the Messiah is to be 49 + 434 = 483 years. Some writers analyze Daniel’s prophecy counting up leap years and even days, but begin with whatever theory we may, it must be admitted that the prophecy fits the events surrounding Jesus. By simple arithmetic 483- 457 = 26, and the general consensus of opinion agrees on approximately that year as the one in which Jesus, after receiving the baptism of John, began his public career.4

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